


Until The End of the Line

by Chocobae



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers - Freeform, Captain America - Freeform, F/M, Fighting, Marvel - Freeform, Multi, Other, Romance, Shipping, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-11 02:58:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 52,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7024606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chocobae/pseuds/Chocobae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ashlynn was smart, mature girl since she was young. Yet, she was also very different from everyone her own age. It wasn't because of her God Father, but it was something from all the way back in WWII. Now though, she's brought onto a team of heroes, and she begins to fill things for a curtain Super Soldier. Though, maybe she was blinded by love? Maybe she wasn't seeing the full picture until someone else came into her life, that made it go completely upside down, and she's willing to chase it for however long she can. Only question is, will anyone stop her?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. SHIELD

The seat was digging into her back, and whenever she looked out the front, she only saw darkness, nothing could be seen outside, and it caused her stomach to flip a few times. Some unknown SHEILD agent sat across from her as her escort since Phil apparently had other matters to attend to before coming back to wherever Ashlynn was being taken. She crossed her arms again, looking up to the roof of the jet, seeing nothing interesting once again. Sure, she got the files, but she already had read through them before she left off in the jet. She had read them again, just to be sure that there was any extra information she missed, but there was nothing. Now she sat here, waiting for something to happen, or to finally arrive somewhere.  
  
        “Um, Ms. Stark, we are about to arrive soon, is there anything you wish to know?” the agent asked, across from me. He seemed like he was probably knew at this job, but she wasn’t that scary.  
        “Don’t worry, I’ll ask Fury when I get there,” Ashlynn said, smiling softly to remind the agent that she wasn’t some scary person that the files made her out to be.  
  
The agent gave her a smile back, nodding his head, only to leave her alone, not continuing the conversation. It was pretty late at night after all, so she honestly couldn’t blame him for barely talking to her. At least he offered to give her information if she asked. At least SHIELD was getting better agents.  
When the jet finally landed, Ashlynn stood up, heading out, seeing that they were on some huge ship. She looked around, seeing jets, and people walking around the deck, but the first thing to catch her eyes when looking towards where the agent was walking, she was a curtain red-head that she hadn’t seen in a while.  
  
        “Look at who we have here,” Ashlynn said, heading towards the red-head. “Natasha, you’ve cut your hair,”  
        “Nice to see you again, Ashlynn,” Natasha greeted, smiling. “Good to see you here, I thought you wouldn’t show up.”  
        “Of course I would show up,” she said, crossing her arms. “Fury would have a fit.”  
  
Natasha laughed before leading Ashlynn inside the ship, they walked down a rather long hall, but not towards the bridge from the looks of it, most likely towards the living quarters it seemed, due to a lot of people that seemed to be in this one hall, but then branched off into a rather empty hall after going through one door. Ashlynn read a name tag next to a door, and knew right away that this was the Avengers’ private living quarters. When the stopped in front of one, Ashlynn knew this was meant for her.  
  
        “Get some sleep, Fury will talk with you when you all arrive,” Natasha said, patting her back before leaving Ashlynn there on her own.  
  
Ashlynn shrugged, going into the room without a second thought, and looking around at the plain area around her. She wasn’t going to be here long enough to do anything about that. At least someone was wise enough to get her a blue bed set.  Kicking her shoes off, long with her socks, followed by her sweater being stripped, Ashlynn dropped her bag next to her bed before laying down on it. At least it was comfy too. Maybe being here wasn’t going to be too bad. Yet she still didn’t want to be here for too long. She still had a life to deal with, and she was pretty sure that she wasn’t meant for the super hero work. But, who knew really.  
With that thought, she closed her eyes, having a feeling that she truly wouldn’t know when she would actually get a decent night sleep again if she was with SHEILD for some unknown mission so far. But, if Phil had gotten Tony too, then it was something serious. It wasn’t about personal profiles anymore, it was about something that much bigger. Something that needed the strongest and the smartest people to deal with, and by sure lucky…  
She was one of them.  
   
The morning seemed to have come all too soon the nineteen year old female. She groaned in annoyance when she heard the banging on her door, she almost wanted to tell Tony to shut up until she realize that there was barely any noise of traffic. It was silent. She had arrived somewhere where Fury was. She sat up, looking at around the room, nothing had changed, but the second round of pounding on the door began. Ashlynn threw the blanket off of her, before stomping to the door, and swinging it open to reveal none other than Natasha with a shit-eating grin on her face. Ashlynn rubbed her face, not sure if she should ask why Natasha was pounding on her door or not.  
  
        “Come on, Phil is almost back with someone special and another genius is about to arrive.” Natasha said, grabbing her arm and dragging the poor younger girl from her room without looking half decent and completely barefooted.  
  
Moving around and through people after just waking up wasn’t one of Ashlynn’s strong traits. She was tripping and stumbling, someone was nice enough t to arrive with a cup of coffee for the younger female. Natasha opened up a big metal door with an air lock around it to reveal a deck. And this was the first time that how truly big the ship was and how big the ocean was around them. She followed after Natasha, looking at everything around her. Sure, Tony had cooler things in the lab, but being on something that was practically out of a movie was something else entirely. She didn’t know Natasha was ahead of her before Phil’s voice snapped her back into reality.  
  
        “Ashlynn, come meet somebody!” Phil’s voice rang through her ears. She looked over, and she almost spilled coffee all over her.  
  
Standing between Natasha and Phil was a man. And not just any man. The first super hero, the very man her Great Grand Mother loved for so long and still does, the man who gave America hope and would be doing it again in whatever was going on even. Steve Rogers, THE Captain America. Taking a deep breath through her nose, she headed over, enjoying them.  
  
        “Captain Rogers, meet Ashlynn C-“ Phil was about to say before Ashlynn cut him off.  
        “Ashlynn Stark,” Ashlynn greeted, holding out her hand, for him to shake. He smiled softly, and shook her hand. Her heart felt like it skipped a beat, his hand was big and warm around hers. It made her feel safe.  
        “Steve Rogers, I didn’t know Howard’s son had a daughter,” Steve said, trying to figure out that huge mystery.  
        “I’m his God Daughter, but he might as well be my father, since he’s raised pretty much since birth,” she said, taking another sip of her coffee to keep herself from going off in some shape or form.  
        “Anyways, I have to go, stage two is beginning,” Phil said, patting her shoulder, before leaving the other three two it.  
        “So, what are you going to be doing exactly?” Steve asked, his attention back towards me, seeming rather interested.  
        “I might be in the lab, I might be helping you,” Ashlynn said, shrugging. “I’m technically just a free bird at the moment since they don’t really know where they need me at the moment.”  
        “Well, I look forward to working with you,” He said, smiling at her, a true gentleman smile.  
  
 Ashlynn smiled back, taking another sip of her coffee, causing Natasha to let out a quiet little snicker at Ashlynn’s behavior of these last few minutes towards the American hero. Natasha began walking away from where they were standing, causing the other two to follow her.  
  
        “You were a big deal when they pulled you from the ice,” Natasha said, then looked back at Ashlynn. “Even at Stark’s house you were a pretty big deal.” Then her attention was on Steve. “I thought Coulson was going to swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards?”  
        “Trading cards?” Steve questioned, making Ashlynn want to face-palm, but only to realize that this man had been in ice for seventy years, so, she couldn’t really give the man a hard time.  
        “Their vintage, he’s very proud,” Natasha said, grinning like the Cheshire cat.  
  
While walking, Ashlynn took note of a man looking rather lost on the deck. And it was a bit obvious who it was too, since he looked a little worried at the same time. Not that she could really blame him. He was just being careful and he didn’t wish to hurt anyone. He seemed like a nice guy anyways.  
  
        “Doctor Banner!” Steve called out, picking up the pace, causing the man to head towards them.  
        “Huh, yeah, hi,” Dr. Banner greeted, not sure what was going on even, even took to sizing Steve up. “They told me you would be coming,”  
        “Words said you can find the cube,” Steve said, striking up a conversation with the doctor.  
        “Is that the only word of me?” Banner asked, looking around nervously.  
        “Only word I care about.” Steve said, confirming it.  
        “And what about you,” Banner asked, the attention on Ashlynn now. “Is that the only word you care about?”  
        “Honestly, yeah, it is,” she answered, taking another sip of her coffee. “I read your file; you’re not a bad guy. I mean, I really look forward to working with you. I’ve read some of your papers, and I have to say, they are very interesting and something I wish to talk to you more about when we have the time.”  
        “Good to know that something of your age takes interest in that,” Banner said, before holding his hand out to her. “I’m Doctor Bruce Banner, and you must be Ashlynn Stark?”  
        “I am, Doctor,” Ashlynn confirmed, shaking his hand. “If Tony shows up, he’ll be greatly thrilled to finally be meeting you for the first time ever.”  
        Banner looked back to Steve, before motioning to everything around him. “This must be strange for you.” He said, to Steve, not sure how to go about this really. “All of this…”  
        “Actually,” Steve said, looking around, sliding his hands into his pockets. “This is all kind of familiar.”  
        “I bet it is…”Ashlynn mutters to herself, looking at her feet.  
        “Gentlemen, and lady,” Natasha said, breaking into their little conversation. “I think it would be wise to step inside now, it’s going to get hard to breathe soon.”  
  
The three gave Natasha a confused look, before a mechanical sound was heard that caused them to look at each other.  
  
         “Is this a submarine?” Steve asked, slowly going towards the edge with curiosity.  
        Banner gave an ‘oh’ kind of face. “So, they want me in a submerge, pressurized metal container?” he asked, following after Steve.  
        “No offence, I’m becoming a bit nervous at the thought of that…” Ashlynn admitted, following after them.  
        “None taken,” Banner said, smiling softly over his shoulder towards her.  
  
Look over the edge, they were greeted not by something cover over to cover the deck, but huge turbines that seemed to be going really fast underneath the water that was causing huge whirlpool, and most likely causing a whole lot of small fish to die, and maybe some medium size ones as well. Soon enough, they were being lifted from the water, causing a big gust of wind to hit them.  
  
        “Oh no, this is much worst,” Banner said, shaking his in dislike.  
        “Honestly, I think this is better out of the previous scenario,” Ashlynn pointed out, slamming back the rest of her coffee. “Come on, let’s get inside, I really don’t want to die a thousands of feet up in the air from lack of oxygen.”  
  
Soon enough, Ashlynn, along with Steve and Banner followed after Natasha, heading inside before being lead through hallways and doors to head to the bridge. Yet, before getting to the bridge, the three of them shared a look between each, completely unsure about what they would expect when they passed through those doors, and when they did, they were still speechless. Banner stayed in the back, checking his surroundings. Steve had gone closer to Fury, and was in awe, yet he was smiling at the same time. Ashlynn on the other hand stayed in the distance between the two men, not really sure how she was meant to really do anything. The other two looked rather professional, as she looked like she had just crawled out of bed, which was actually the case. Once everything had been completely, Fury had turned around and addressed them, only for Steve to hand Fury ten dollars. Banner looked to Ashlynn, and she only shrugged, not wishing to hurt her head over it.  
  
        “Doctor, Ms. Stark,” Fury said, looking at the two of them. “Thank you for coming.”  
        “Thank you for asking nicely,” Banner said, rubbing his hands together.  
         “I’m glad I could be here, but I don’t think that I could be much help in this effort since I am currently still learning about this,” Ashlynn said, soon enough following after Steve since she really didn’t want to get into Banner’s way, and she really couldn’t wrap her head around this whole tesseract thing.  
  
She showed up next to Steve, looking out the window like him, honestly amazed at seeing the water down below, she kind of wish she had some way to look closer to the water and see a whale or something, maybe even and underwater camera to actually see the fishes or something. She looked up to Steve, smiling at him.  
  
        “I bet everything is really different for you,” She said, quiet enough to not really catch other people’s attention. “I mean, you’re a man out of time. A hero that everyone still looks up to,”  
        “Yeah, it’s different, I mean, I remember a world that was still at war,” He said, still looking ahead. “When I wake up, we’ve won and the world is mostly at peace.”  
        “I would use the term, kind of, rather than mostly,” She added, looking back out the window as well. “Everything that is reported in the news isn’t as big as some of things that have happened over the years…”  
        “Like Stark’s disappearance before he was a man in suit?” Steve asked, looking down at Ashlynn.  
        “Yeah, that was dealt with by a man that I hated since I was three, who caused the whole mess,” Ashlynn said, laughing slightly.  
  
Steve chuckled, still looking at her, causing her to look up at him. For a second it felt like her whole life kind of stopped, just leaving the two of them as the only two really moving, and knowing what was going on. Sure, it was a first time for something to happen like this with the opposite gender, but at the same time Ashlynn was fighting against it. Her heart wanted to get to know the man better as her brain told her that this was crazy, and that Steve would never really know who she truly was. Who knows, maybe he could already see Peggy in her. The last thing that she wanted was this man who was so out of time, to only love her for a past love that he had. Not to mention that falling in love this quickly was just stupid. Yet maybe that was because Steve just had movie star attractiveness about him that drew her in.  
  
        “Hmm, would you two like some time alone?” Fury questioned from behind them, causing the two of them to kind of take a step away from each other.  
        “No, Fury, we’re just talking,” Ashlynn said, running a hand through her hair. “It’s always good to make your team mates conformable in the environment that they are not use to being in.”  
        “Wise words, Stark,” Fury said, shaking his head. “Going to tell him anything personal about you since the entire world practically knows everything about him.”  
  
Ashlynn mouth opened then closed, she was at a loss of words for that statement. She couldn’t reveal who she was to him. That would just cause everything to fall out of place. And she just meant Steve to being with, the last thing she really wanted to do was make him feel that he needed to protect her.  
  
        “Maybe she’ll share if we know each other long enough to become friends, sir,” Steve voiced in, noticing her trouble for a reply for that.  
        Fury, at least satisfied for now about an answer, left the two of them alone to mingle. Ashlynn looked to Steve, and smiled friendly at him. “Thanks, Steve,” Ashlynn thanked, her heart causing her feel warm.  
        “It was nothing really, I just felt like I had to at least help you in some way, I mean, you kind of remind me of someone I knew along ago,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck shyly.  
        “Really?” she asked, slightly interested, but really nervous that she already knew the answer. “Care to talk about it?”  
        “Yeah, I haven’t had really anyone to talk to about it since I woke up, so it should be nice.” Steve said, turning around, heading towards the table. “Um, want to see if we can find something to eat? I haven’t had a chance to have breakfast before I left.”  
        “I’ve only had coffee so far, so, that would actually be really good right about now.” Ashlynn agreed, following after him with the quick sound of her bare feet on the floor. “So, care to tell me who I remind you of?”  
        “Well, I know it’s rude to talk about another lady with a lady, but since you offered.” Steve said, looking in through doors for some kind of kitchen or anything. “But back in the war, I had met someone, she was real special, and she had this spunk about her that I really liked. She was something out of this world, and I was lucky enough to catch you attention. I promised her a dance after the war had finished, but as you already know, I went under. First thing I did when I woke up was realize I was late for that dance. About seventy years too late… Apparently she’s still alive, but I’m not so sure I should go and see her. I don’t want to freak her out of anything.”  
        “I highly doubt you would freak her out,” Ashlynn said, going into one room that luckily held all the food it seemed, since there was like a full working kitchen in said room. “I think she would actually come to terms with hearing that you’re alive. But I must know who this lucky lady is? I would really like it if I had a name at least.”  
        “Peggy Carter.” He replied, looking onto a shelf at the food. “She’s one of the founders of SHIELD.”  
        “She’s one special lady than to have known you back in your proper time,” She said, pulling out some bacon and eggs from the fridge. “I’ve met Peggy before, I was with Phil. Actually, I’m pretty sure Phil has been around me a lot since I was a little kid really. I still go and visit Peggy; she tells me all the wonderful stories of you and the Howling Commandos… And I know nobody really wants to hear this, especially so late, but I’m really sorry about what happened to your best friend, he seemed like a swell guy from all the stories I’ve heard.”  
        “Bucky… He really was a great guy,” Steve said, placing stuff for pancakes and hash browns on the counter top as well. “He was a real smooth talker. Yet, he was the greatest friend I could ever have, I got myself into so many fights when I was so weak, he would always be there to make sure I made it out of there without any broken bones.”  
  
Ashlynn smiled sadly as she grabbed some pans and bowls to cook with. Peggy did mean a lot to him, and she honestly couldn’t even speak the truth to him. She didn’t want things to be awkward around him if he was told that. She did love her grandmother dearly, but she honestly couldn’t risk anything awkward with said grandmothers past love interest. She looked to Steve, seeing that he was already starting on making pancakes. He was a really sweet guy. It was a bit sad that he really didn’t have anyone to talk to about what he’s been feeling lately since waking up in a completely different time yet being in the same place that you’ve live pretty much all your life.  
The two of the cooked the breakfast that was fit for people who had just ran like two miles or something when Phil had walked in to see the two just beginning to dig into their meal. He looked between the two of them, and Ashlynn held out a piece of bacon out for Phil. “Want some?” she offered, biting into her own piece of bacon.  
  
        “Actually, I was wondering if you two wanted to sit on the bridge with the rest of us, something might come up soon, and we might need you right away,” Phil said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “I mean, I understand if you two want to eat somewhere where you aren’t being at least watched.”  
        “Well, I guess that would be wise to actually be sitting there than in here,” Ashlynn said, looking towards Steve, biting into and strip of bacon.  
  
Steve shrugged, grabbing his plate from the counter, following after Phil, causing her to do the same. Once they were back on the bridge, they sat the huge table there. Eating slowly, and having small conversations between each other. Phil was talking to Steve about signing his trading cards when a voice ran out.  
  
        “We got a hit!”  
  
Steve, Phil and I quickly headed to the agents side to see what was going on. Maybe things were going to be simple, but deep down; she knew that this was only going to be an uphill climb with whatever was going on.


	2. Typical Life

The day had started off as any other day that she had. A nice hot chocolate made by Jarvis, followed by her rather quickly getting dressed before leaving Stark Tower to head to the Senior’s Home to see the one woman that shared so many adventures with the young mind of her Great Grand-Daughter. Ashlynn admired her Great Grand-Mother Peggy for years. The older Carter had raised her almost right along-side Tony Stark before she had to be brought to this home due to her Alzheimer’s. Some days when Ashlynn came here, she would be holding Peggy’s hands, pretending to be the one and only Captain America. It broke Ashlynn’s heart to see her Grandma Peggy in such a state. No matter how much she loved Great Grand-Father, she would always love Steve just that much more. Ashlynn had spent hours there until Peggy had finally fallen asleep before she finally left. That was how her days were. Always with her Great Grand-Mother Peggy, wanting the woman’s finally times to be good ones and not alone like the other people that lived in that Senior Home with her. Though, during those times, Ashlynn cursed herself for having the same blue eye color as the famous Captain America. Ashlynn kind of hoped that the man at least visits Peggy since during his time that he had awoken from the ice. Even to this day, Ashlynn could sickly remember Phil coming over to the senior’s Home to tell Peggy that Steve was still alive. Though, it only caused Peggy to cry, because Steve was a man out of time, and that he was never going to get a real chance to live the life he wanted before the whole war or before he went under.  
Ashlynn sighed as she stepped into the elevator of Stark Tower, heading up to relax the rest of the afternoon away with Tony and Pepper. After all, tonight was the huge night that Stark Tower was going to be the only Tower in New York City that had its own power that was really clean thanks to the reactor in Tony’s chest.  
  
        “Ms. Stark, is something troubling you?” Jarvis asked over the speakers to see how the young adult female was doing with her life from the unpleasant sound she had casted from her mouth.  
        “It’s nothing, Jarvis,” she replied, rolling her eyes a little. “I’m just thinking about things..”  
        “Is it of Ms. Carter?” He questioned, wanting to know if the matter was serious.  
        “Maybe a little bit…” Ashlynn replied, shrugging her shoulders.  
        “Shall I inform Ms. Potts and Mr. Stark?” Jarvis asked, being ready to off the assistance she need.  
        “That wouldn’t be needed, Jarvis,” she said, just with the perfect timing when she arrived at the pent house level of the Tower.  
  
The doors opened up, opening to a grand pent house. With the latest technology from every single space of the area, Ashlynn walked in, scanning the surrounding area for her God Father; Tony, or maybe Pepper, if she was lucky. Though, she should know that Tony is the one that she was going to find first.  
  
        “Hey, how’s my little Soldier?” Tony asked, wrapping an arm around the younger girl. “Have a good visit with Peggy?”  
        “I’m doing well,” Ashlynn replied to the first question before having to think about the second one. “She’s good… Another World War II episode though, and once again, I was apparently Steve…”  
        “Honestly, I’m beginning to wondering if Capsicle visits her,” he said, letting go of Ashlynn before walking off towards his bar. “I mean, lately, these episodes have been happening more often than not.”  
        “Maybe the next time Phil pops up we can ask him,” Pepper chimed in, coming from towards the bedrooms with a tablet in hand. “I know you both care about Peggy a lot, especially after Phil announced Captain America’s return. I bet it’s a lot on her since the man is so young still.”  
        “Pepper, Phil said, pretty much the first thing that Steve said after it all sank in was that he was late for a dance,” Ashlynn said, taking a seat on the couch, sighing. “…the dance that he was meant to have with Peggy…”  
  
Ashlynn knew that story all too well. After it was confirmed that Steve had crashed into the ocean, and the war was finished. Peggy had still gone out dancing. Her original l plan wasn’t to dance at all, but a kind man came up to her, and offered her a dance that she had decided to take up on since it was almost the end of the night for her. What Peggy didn’t know that the man she was dancing with was a man that Steve had saved but also would be the man that she married later on.  
A cold can of something touched the back of Ashlynn’s neck, causing the younger girl to jump a little at the feeling something so cold against her warm neck like that all of a sudden. She looked up to see Tony standing there with holding a can of her favorite soda, Cream Soda Crush. She took the can from him before cracking it open and taking a sip. “You wanna know something,” Tony said, taking a seat next to Ashlynn, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “I don’t regret my father making Capsicle, because if that man hadn’t been around, that would mean I wouldn’t get to have you in my life, and I don’t like the thought of that.”  
Ashlynn smiled sheepishly at the soda can in her hand. Sure, Tony was big talk on the TV and stuff like that, but people would never see this side of him. He was top dad material, and you couldn’t have raised her any better. Sure, there had been times when Tony was a complete jerk off, but it was how he was at times. It all depended on the situation at hand, and if it even pertained to him. At least someone in her family wanted her. It was like a miracle that such a thing happened.  
  
        “Plus,” Tony added on after some time of silence. “We get to get this Tower off the grid and have its own self-staining energy.”  
        “But I thought that this was only a prototype?” Ashlynn asked, looking at Tony with a raised eyebrow.  
        “You should know by now that when anything is a prototype that it usually because the actual thing in like six months.” He pointed out, poking her shoulder.  
        “True, true,” Ashlynn agreed, taking another sip of her soda before relaxing more into the couch. “And when exactly are you taking it off the grid?”  
        “Later on this evening, people will still be out on boats and people will be at the beach, I can’t risk people possibly getting shocked if I make a slight mistake.” Tony said, giving a meek look at the thought of hurting anyone.  
        “Wise, but you’re going in the Iron Man suit, so I’m pretty sure you’ll have Jarvis guiding you,” Pepper said, taking a seat next to Tony and resting her head on his shoulder.  
        “Pepper has made another brilliant point,” Ashlynn pointed out sarcastically to Tony in a loving way.  
        “You two can just laugh it off all you want, even Jarvis makes mistakes,” Tony said, rolling his eyes with a chuckle.  
        “Excuse me, sir, but I have never made a single mistake in my entire existence, you’ve made sure of that,” Jarvis chimed in, and caused Pepper and Ashlynn to crack up laughing. “And according to my scanning of everyone’s bodies, I have to say someone is a bit envious, though they just don’t realize it.”  
        “Jarvis, come on, I honestly don’t have time for dating,” Ashlynn shot across, knowing that seeing Pepper and Tony like this, but also hearing about Steve from Peggy had stirred things up inside of her. “When the time is right, I’ll find someone or I’ll just be forever alone with you Jarvis.”  
        “Such a sweet thought, Ms. Stark,” Jarvis said, before becoming quiet once again, but Tony picking up the conversation.  
        “Honestly, I’m surprised that you still haven’t gotten a boyfriend,” he said, shaking his head. “I was sure for a while there that you and Peter were going to start going out.”  
        “Nah, I was just helping him with asking Gwen out on a date,” Ashlynn said, thinking back on that. Honestly, that didn’t seem that long ago now that she thought about it. “I’m really happy for them,”  
        Tony patted her head, before smoothing out her hair. “You know, I am getting worried that you aren’t interested in guys…” He said, giving her a soft smile. “I feel like I might have messed something up within you to enjoy the nerdy things in life so much that you forgot that there was another side of life that you just never really knew about.”  
        “I have celebrity crushes,” Ashlynn argues, smiling a little. “I mean I know about that whole other side of life, but, I just never really got to live it since I graduated from High School at the age of thirteen. Everyone knows that I’m your ‘daughter’, so to speak, and that they would only date me for money, and I know that too well…”  
        “Maybe you can play it old school,” Pepper suggested, smiling at her. “Like have the men court you before seriously getting into a relationship with you. Peggy would love to see that happen.”  
        Ashlynn rolled her eyes, not really caring about all of it. “Then how am I meant to explain a few things? Like the fact that I’m amazingly good at fighting.”  
        “Easy, tell them you got trained by a super spy,” Tony said, laughing a bit. “I mean Natasha did teach you rather well.”  
        “Yes, that is true, but if anyone was to find out about the fact that I am carrying secrets that aren’t meant to be shared, the person who was possibly dating me could be some enemy trying to destroy the world,” Ashlynn said, shaking her head. “I am perfectly fine with waiting before I find the right man. Sure, it might take some time, but I will wait.”  
        “I’m pretty sure that’s the science side of you talking when you say you’ll wait.” Pepper said, laughing a little, before reaching over and rubbing Ashlynn’s cheek. “Just don’t forget to put what your heart first before your brain; you might miss out on someone real special if you don’t.”  
        “Well, my heart is saying right now is that I would very much like to drop this conversation right now,” she said, rolling her eyes before moving away from Pepper and Tony on the couch before she’s given too much more advice on relationships. “Anyways, shouldn’t you be going now Tony? This Tower can’t get its self-off the grid on its own…”  
        Tony chuckled before getting off the couch and heading out onto the landing pad to get this suit on, leaving Ashlynn with Pepper. “Pepper, I wouldn’t forget to put my heart first, but if my brain is screaming danger at the same time, I’m going to put my brain first,” Ashlynn said, giggling slightly at her own promise.  
        Pepper stood up, patting Ashlynn’s shoulder. “I’m perfectly fine with that, but right now, let’s get this whole thing underway, and then we can all celebrate the accomplishment of having the Tower giving off clean energy.”  
Ashlynn stood to her feet, chugging back her soda can, before setting it on the table to clean up later. “That sounds good to me, I’ll head now to reactor to make sure that everything is ready down there before we get too far into this and something ends up blowing up.”  
  
With that, Ashlynn went back to the elevator, heading down to the lower part of the Tower to make sure that nothing was messed with, and everything was in place. Yet in the back of her mind, maybe Pepper was right, she needed to start putting her heart more head of what her brain is telling her. She could miss out of someone so special. For so many years that Ashlynn’s brain has clouded her judgement, not her heart, but her brain.  
Hopefully something good comes her way soon. Maybe she just needs a little kick.  
  
   
Ashlynn stepped out of the elevator after adjusting a few things down in the reactor room down below since some of it seemed half assed done, most likely during the time that Tony had been working days on end. At least they weren’t in hard to reach places and they weren’t a huge thing that needed to be fixed.  
  
        “Are we off the grid yet?” she asked, getting next to Pepper and looking at all the readings that Jarvis was displaying for their needs.  
        “Is everything fixed down below?” Tony asked, sounding like he was still underwater.  
        “Yeah, it’s all good, nothing major, just a few things that needed to get adjusted and tightened, but that was about it,” she said, looking over some messages on the side that was sent to her from other companies. “Get us off the grid, I want to see how this turns out.”  
        “Well, we are now off the grid, since I needed to confirm that everything was good before I continued,” Tony said, just slightly annoyed. “It’s all up to you guys now, as Stark Tower becomes a masterpiece of self-sustaining clean energy.”  
        “Assuming the Arc-Reactor takes over and actually works,” Pepper throws in, shaking her head, while looking over some of the readings she was seeing.  
        “Assuming…” Tony said, in a disapproving tone. “Well, light her up,”  
        With a simple press on the screen, the tower began to power up, just like it would if it was still on the grid. “How does it look?” Pepper asked, wanting to be sure that everything was going okay out there.  
        “It’s like Christmas, but with a little more me,” Tony said, causing Ashlynn to roll her eyes.  
        “Well, you should do some serious press on this, and get in touch with the awareness campaign,” Ashlynn said, looking over how the power energy was holding. “Some of the companies that donated to this, they are seriously excited about hearing about it after we finish with monitoring.”  
        “I’m going to be in DC tomorrow, where I’ll be designing the next three buildings.” Pepper said, looking over what her schedule was for the next few weeks. “Any suggestions where one should be, Ashlynn?”  
        “One has to be in DC, with the president seeing it, it would really cause some more heads to turn,” Ashlynn said, adjusting some of the power, making sure that it was even in most of the Tower.  
        “You two, what did I say about the moment, you need to enjoy the moment,” Tony said, as we could hear him flying towards the platform.  
        “Then why don’t you get in here and then I will,” Pepper replied with a flirty tone.   
        “Okay, I am here you know,” Ashlynn said, as a reminder, causing her to blush a little bit out of awkwardness.  
        watched Tony coming out of his Iron Man suit, when Jarvis spoke up. “Agent Coulson of SHIELD is on the line,”  
        “I’m not in, I’m actually out,” Tony said, continuing walking towards the entrance of the building.    
        Yet, Jarvis had to continue. “He’s insisting, Sir.”  
        “Grow a spine, Jarvis,” Tony said, clearly getting tired. “I have a date,”  
        Ashlynn rolled her eyes, before turning around, looking at the levels. “The levels are holding steady,” Pepper said, a bit unsure. “I think…”  
        “They are,” Ashlynn confirmed, smiling softly.  
        “Of course they are,” Tony voiced in, grinning. “I was directly involved. Which leads us to the next question, how does it feel to be a genius?”  
        “Well…” Pepper began, not sure where to lead this. “I really wouldn’t know, now would I?”  
        “Come on, Pepper,” Ashlynn said, grinning. “All of this comes from you, and I have to say I am impressed, and greatly honored to be working with such a great mind.”  
        “No, all of this comes from this,” Pepper said, pointing to the mini Arc-Reactor in Tony’s chest. “And this,” Pepper reached over and pulled Ashlynn’s head towards her to kiss the top of it.  
        “Give yourself at least some credit,” Tony said, taking a hold of Pepper’s shoulders. “Stark Tower is your baby, give yourself at least twelve percent of the credit.”  
        “Twelve percent?” Pepper questioned, looking at Tony in disbelief before slipping from his hands and walking away.  
        “An argument can be made for fifteen,” Tony said, following right after her, leaving Ashlynn to stand there laughing.   
        “Twelve percent of my baby?” Pepper asked, still not getting over that.  
        “I lifted all the heavy things, I pretty much lifted everything,” Tony said, going to join Pepper back on the couch. “And the security snafu, was kind of on you,” Pepper gave Tony the ‘oh really?’ look. “And the building of my private elevator,”  
        “Our Private elevator,” Pepper corrected while pouring the champagne. “That was shared with sweaty work men…” Tony reminded her, and then he sighed. “I’m going to pay for that comment about percentages in some way later aren’t I?”  
        Ashlynn walked over, taking her glass from Pepper, standing with them, smiling softly. “I think the next Tower will have Potts on it,” Tony said, in a way of apologizing to Pepper for his comment before.  
        “On the lease,” Pepper tried to sway Tony, which caused him to cringe a little bit.  
        “Call your mom, can you bunk over?” Tony asked, causing Ashlynn to chuckle, before taking sip of her champagne.  
        A sound was made, and Jarvis’ voice came through. “Sir, the phone, I’m afraid my protocols are being overwritten-“ The Phil’s voice came through. “Mr. Stark we need to talk-“  
        Tony picked up his phone, taking a deep breath before doing the most generic thing possible. “You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message.”  
        “This is urgent,” Phil said, and Ashlynn noted that Phil seemed a bit fanatic.  
        “Then leave it urgent,” Tony said, like it was an obvious answer.  
        Only for the elevator door to open up, to reveal Phil Coulson standing there, looking pleased with himself, should have known that he was going to be already on his way here.  
        “Security breach,” Tony said, smiling a bit.  
        “Mr. Stark, Ms. Stark,” Phil greeted Tony and Ashlynn before stepping out of the elevator.  
        “Phil,” Pepper greeted, cheerful. “Come on in,”  
        “Phil, honestly, just call me Ashlynn,” Ashlynn said, rolling her eyes a bit annoyed.  
  
Along with Pepper and Tony, Ashlynn headed over to Phil to see what was going, especially if he addressed her and Tony first before Pepper, and the tone in his voice was kind of shaking Ashlynn up a little bit. Words were just flying around her before Phil held something out, which she took before getting the thing ready, and started to head towards the desk. Something about the Avengers was being thrown around, and Ashlynn could only shake her head. “I was only brought into that because I was apparently going to be useful to Captain America,” Ashlynn said, making a hand motion for Tony to come here before she even did anything else.  
  
        “What is this about?” Pepper asked, on the other side of Tony while he punched in numbers. “Phil seems pretty shaken.”  
        “It’s about this…” Ashlynn said, sliding everything up so that it could be out in the open in front of them. Tony, Pepper and herself looked around at what was given to them, and something wasn’t right, especially with everyone else’s profile that was meant to be recruited into the Avengers.  
        “I’m going to take the jet to DC tonight,” Pepper said, knowing that this was something serious with what she was seeing.  
        “No, take it tomorrow,” Tony said, Ashlynn knew that he was trying to get out of this somehow.  
        “No, you have homework,” Pepper said, looking over it once more. “Lots of homework,”  
        Ashlynn at this point, grabbed her back that was behind that couch, heading over to Phil. “I’m just going to come with you since it would be a wise decision to so, I know Tony wouldn’t get any work done with Pepper or I around.”  
        “Sure, it would probably be better this way as well,” Phil said, smiling at her in a way that he was trying to keep himself calm. As Pepper came towards them, Ashlynn waved to Tony, before following off after the two to be taken god knows where with Phil. Maybe Ashlynn could talk Phil into letting her see Peggy one more time before she left just to let her know that she was going to be fine and that nothing was going to happen to her while this was going on.  
  
Yet, at the same time, would probably bring the woman more pain then she need at this point. For once, Ashlynn was going to listen to what her heart was telling her to do.  
Leave Peggy out of this, she didn’t need to worry about her Great Grand-Daughter.


	3. Trickster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think it looks better now with what I did using the blockquote on here. I hope you all enjoy!

> “What is the Location?” Phil asked, trying to see what was going on.  
>  “Stuttgart, Germany,” the Agent replied. “He’s not exactly hiding.”

Ashlynn was looking at Loki’s face. She just felt a little sick. This man was a god, and she didn’t know what he could completely do. He was a trickster, according to the information they had on Loki, he was still that. Even to the myths, he was a trickster, a master of illusions. Something about the specter that he had didn’t seem like something a Norse god should not have. It was like something from another world. Yet, she couldn’t put her finger on it.

> “Captain, Stark,” Fury called out to them. The two of them turned around to look at Fury and he just gave them a serious look. “You’re up,”

Ashlynn nodded her head, before following after Steve as he lightly took her hand to lead the way. This was something big. This was something that she had to help with. Hopefully she didn’t mess this up in some horrible. A squeeze of her hand made her look up ahead, and she noticed Steve there, looking at her, smiling softly. She smiled back, at him, returning the squeeze of his hand. At least someone could feel her emotional crisis.

> They met up with Natasha, threw a bag into Ashlynn’s arm. “A uniform I put together for you.” Natasha said, grinning. “You can’t go in just your usual clothes or look nice, you could get hurt, and I don’t think you’re good enough to be running around in heels yet.”

Ashlynn rolled her eyes, but continued walking with them anyways. At least Natasha had a solid point. She could not walk in heels worth shit, Pepper tried to teach her how to do it, but she just couldn’t. Maybe it was because she was so use to being in sneakers all the time that she just couldn’t do it, not even to save her life. They climbed onto the jet, and noticed that Steve wasn’t with them, and Natasha was grinning at Ashlynn like the chestier cat again. She sighed, dropping the bag onto the chair. This had to be some kind of task to get ready quickly isn’t it? Most likely, because Natasha wouldn’t be moving her hand in the way of the ‘hurry up’ motion, without any more confirmation, Ashlynn zipped the bag open and quickly began to strip herself of her clothes before putting on the suit Natasha had made up for her. And in her luck, it wasn’t anything that was revealing, and it was simple to put on since by the time she was lacing up her boots, Steve had just walked on board.

> “Are we ready to go?” Steve asked, looking to Natasha.  
>  Natasha looked to Ashlynn, handing her some short rod, immediately knowing what it was. “We’re ready to go now.” Natasha said, getting into the pilots seat and starting up the jet.  
>  Steve took a seat next to Ashlynn, and looked at the rode. “What is that exactly?” He asked, clearly wondering what something so small could do in a fight.  
>  Ashlynn ran a finger over a little indent in the rod, causing it to expand. “Bō staff, Natasha had me use it when I first met her.” She explained, before making the rod go back into its original state. “It was when it was getting this whole Avengers thing started… Fury had Natasha get into Stark Industries undercover as an assistant; it was quite a month back then…”  
>  Steve nodded his head in understandment. “So, having Tony Stark as a God-Father,” he said, trying to keep up the conversation. “What is that even like?”  
>  “Um, it’s really great actually,” Ashlynn said, smiling softly at the ground. “There’s a side of him that no-one really gets to see. Only Pepper and I get to really see it. He’s kind, and everything he did, he did to keep me safe really… I honestly thought I was going to lose him one time though… I didn’t want to lose any more of my family because of bad guys, but at the same time, I didn’t want to become the bad guy…”

Steve nodded his head once again, thing time letting the conversation end there. Ashlynn knew that Steve was respecting her privacy, and that he wasn’t going to push for any more information. Maybe one day, maybe she’ll actually tell him the truth about a lot of things. But right now, it wasn’t the time to do such things. They needed to save the world from a Norse God at the moment that tried to destroy the world one time already, at least that’s what SHIELD had in their databases, that were for free use anyways, who really knows how much information SHIELD has on Loki really.

> “We’re pulling up to the scene you two,” Natasha said through the comm. “I hope you’re both ready to deal with a God.”  
>  “Are you really asking that?” Ashlynn asked, looking up front. “We have a Super Solider, I’m pretty sure we can deal with a God,”  
>  Natasha’s laugh was heard over the comm. “Well, I’m dropping you both off a little early so we don’t case too much a disturbance when we get there,” she said, opening the back hatch for Ashlynn and Steve to jump from. “Steve you jump first so you can catch Ashlynn, than run across the roof tops. We aren’t that far away from Loki, but if he sees the jet, he might start killing people.”

Steve nodded his head, before standing to his feet, getting his shied connected to his back. He looks at Ashlynn, holding up five fingers. Ashlynn nodded, completely understanding what he meant. Count to five after I jump, then jump after him. Steve took a slight running start before jumping. Ashlynn stood up as well, counting to five as slowly as possible before hitting one, when she took a running start as well, following right after Steve. She wasn’t scared of heights; she was more scared of the fact that Steve might not catch her. Soon enough though, she felt herself land into the steady arms of Steve.

> “Don’t worry; I can’t let a nice lady fall.” Steve said from above her. Ashlynn let out a soft laugh, before slipping from his hold.  
>  “Come on, we got a God to deal with,” Ashlynn said, before sprinting across the roof, and lunging herself off the edge onto the next building.

It was really no surprised that Steve caught up to her so easily, he was the Super Solider after all, and now returned to the world as a hero that they could look up to. Sure, he was really out of time, and he had no idea what anything really was, but he can always learn, and he could teach new things to this time as well.

They were closing in on where Loki was, by the last building, Steve and Ashlynn separated to get a better look at the situation. Steve took the closer buildings that gave Steve an advantage to get to Loki easier as Ashlynn took the slightly further out ones to make sure that she could try and get the civilians away from Loki if she had the change to. Loki was giving some speech about how humans were meant to bend down to a greater power and follow their rules. Then a brave old man stood up to Loki, and what he said, really spoke to Ashlynn, but she knew that something was moving in Loki’s head.

> “Steve, the old man, Loki’s going to kill him…” Ashlynn said through the comm. She began to rush towards the closer buildings, as she noticed that Steve was already on route to the old man.

Before anything could happen, Steve jumped, and Ashlynn felt her breath caught in her throat at the sight. Everything seemed to have slowed down around her as she also made the jump to get down there quicker to help Steve in some way, and hopefully get to the old man, even if she couldn’t really protect herself. When she saw Steve get there just in time, reflecting whatever energy came from Loki’s sceptre, hitting it back at him, knocking the God on his face. She made sure that she landed somewhere near Steve, just in case something else happened.  

> “You know, the last time I was in Germany,” Steve said, walking towards Loki, causing Ashlynn to walk closer as well. “And saw a man standing above everyone else, we ended up disagreeing.”  
>  Loki got to his feet, looking at Steve. “The Solider,” Loki said, looking amused. “A man out of time,”  
>  “I’m not the one that is out of time,” Steve said, sounding so casual about it.  
>  The sound of the jet flying in brought a little bit of weight off of Ashlynn’s shoulders, knowing that Natasha was at least close by and not doing some random mission of her own. “Loki, drop the weapon and stand down.” Natasha’s voice came from the intercom.

Without any consideration, Loki shot at Natasha. Steve immediately threw his shield at Loki, hitting him square in the chest. Ashlynn pulled the rod out of its strap, and extended it, following after Steve to help. As Loki and Steve fought it out, Ashlynn circled around behind Loki to get a chance to possibly strike if she could. When Loki sent Steve across the area, Ashlynn rushed up, and jumped onto his back, ready to use the Bō staff to choke him. Though Loki turned around, grabbed the centre of the staff, throwing Ashlynn over to where Steve was. She skidded across the ground, hitting the cement garden on the side. Steve kneeled next to her, helping her to at least sit up. Ashlynn noted that her shirt tore a little on her ribs and there was wound, nothing to serious, just a little road rash.

Steve got to his feet, throwing his shield again at Loki, only for the God to hit it away from him. Steve ran up, to punch Loki him, but the Trickster only blocked it. It continued on like that, and Steve couldn’t get the upper hand on Loki at all. Ashlynn got to her feet, before rushing at Loki as well; she jumped onto his back, beginning to at least attempt to choke out the God if she could. It only resulted in her getting throwing off of Loki’s back and into Steve. Ashlynn rolled off of Steve, looking at him with an apologetic look. When Steve was about to get to his feet again, Loki rested the end of his sceptre on top of Steve’s head.

> “Kneel,” Loki commanded, looking down on Steve.  
>  Steve grabbed the end of the sceptre, getting to his feet quickly and kicking Loki, and luckily landing the hit, but the down side was that the Trickster only stumbled. “Not today,” Steve said, looking at Loki before he was grabbed by said man, and thrown away from Ashlynn.  
>  “Captain!” Ashlynn called out, getting to her feet and rushing over to him, only problem she had, was Loki blocking her way.

Ashlynn stood there, thinking of what she could do. She could dive for the shield for at least having some way to defend her, or she could do a fake attack at Loki to only slide under him and get to Steve. She wasn’t sure what was the better answer out of the two opinions she had but she didn’t really get a chance to do anything before ACDC began playing from the PA system from the jet, almost making Ashlynn cry out in joy.

> Out of nowhere, a shot was fired, sending Loki flying backwards and to the ground. Ashlynn rushed over to Steve, helping the man up, and looking to Tony. Tony had his guns ready, and pointing at Loki. “Make your move reindeer games,” Tony said, watching Loki closely.  
>  Steve grabbed his shield, going to stand next to Tony. As Ashlynn was about to stand next to Steve, he had stopped her from advancing forward, and made her move more behind him, she understood what he was doing, so she didn’t argue against it. Loki held up his hands, not doing anything. “Good move,” Tony said, relaxing a little, letting his weapons go back into the armor.  
>  “Mr. Stark,” Steve addressed Tony, not taking his eyes off of Loki.  
>  “Captain,” Tony addressed back to Steve, doing the exact same thing.

 

After getting Loki handcuffed, and onto the jet. Ashlynn, Tony, and Steve watched over him closely, not sure what to think about this God. Natasha was flying the jet, and talking to Fury. Steve was obviously not comfortable about it; Ashlynn could read it in his body language.

> “I don’t like it,” Steve whispered to Tony and Ashlynn.  
>  “What? The fact that Rock of Asia had given up so easily?” Tony questioned, watching Loki closely.  
>  “I don’t remember it ever being this easy,” Steve said, looking at Tony. “This guy packs a wallop.”  
>  “Well, you’re still pretty spry for an older fella,” Tony said, looking to Steve. “What’s your thing? Pilates?”  
>  “What?” Steve asked, completely confused about what Tony was even talking about.  
>  “It’s like callanetics,” Tony explained, like it was no big deal. “You might have missed a couple of things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle,”  
>  Ashlynn reached up, and hit Tony in the back of the head. “Shut up,” Ashlynn whispered harshly, glaring at Tony, clearly not happy with how he was treating Steve.  
>  Steve’s face became even more serious. “Fury didn’t tell me he was calling you in,” he said, changing the subject.  
>  Tony shrugged, completely fine with the change in subject. “There are a lot of things Fury doesn’t tell you,” Tony stated.

Ashlynn sighed, not really liking the tension between Tony and Steve. Honestly, she was a bit nervous about them working on a team together, and if Dr. Banner got around them. She actually was beginning to feel sorry for the guy because Tony can be a bit much most of the time. When the jet rocked a little, Ashlynn grabbed onto Steve’s arm before she fell over. Hearing thunder, followed by the flash of lightening, she had become as confused as the others in the jet.

> Steve had turned to Loki, and questioned the God. “What’s the matter? Scared of a little lightening?”  
>  “I’m not overly fond of what follows.” Loki replied, looking rather uneasy at the thought of it.

Not even seconds after Loki said that, there was a sudden thud on the roof, and the jet shook. Ashlynn looked up at the roof like everyone else, wondering what the hell it was. Though Ashlynn was beginning to have a pretty clear idea what it was, Steve had gone for his shield, as Tony had reapplied the mask to his fact. Began walking, going to the back hatch, and opening it. Steve looked to Tony, and Ashlynn could barely hear what he was saying due to the wind that was coming up inside. Tony was about to step out when a blonde man with a hammer landed on the door. Ashlynn’s thoughts were correct.

Tony was about to shoot at the blonde man, before getting hit with the hammer, and being thrown back into Steve, the two of them falling into a heap on the ground. The blonde man grabbed Loki up by the throat, heading towards the hatch, causing Ashlynn to rush after them, jumping onto the man’s back. Not the best idea considering she ended up being taken with the God as well. She held on tight, not wishing to die from falling at such a great height. The only problem she was really having was not having a communication device with her so she could get the others to where she was, or at least track her. Then again, Jarvis had Ashlynn’s vitals into his system, and he could track her rather easily. The wind was freezing, due to how fast they were going. She felt like she was losing grip on the man’s neck, but she made sure that she grabbed onto his shirt at least so she didn’t fall off. When he finally landed, throwing Loki to the ground, Ashlynn let out of him, and fell onto her back as well. Her limbs felt like jelly, and she could barely move her body, and she just moved her eyes down to look at the God of Thunder, who paid her no mind.

> “Where is the tesseract?” Thor asked Loki, looking down at the shackled man.  
>  “Ahaha, I missed you too,” Loki said, rather sassily.  
>  “Do I look like to be in a gaming mood?” Thor questioned, raising his voice.  
>  Loki let out an airy chuckle, before making himself sit up. “Oh, you should thank me,” he said, to Thor, looking the man in the eyes. “With the Bifröst gone, how much dark energy did your father have to muster to conquer you here to your precious earth?”  
>  Thor let the hammer drop to the ground, Ashlynn eyed Thor carefully, and they couldn’t risk Thor doing anything to Loki. Thor walked over to Loki, and picked him up by the front of this shirt this time. “I thought you dead,” Thor said, his voice shaking a little.  
>  “Did he mourn?” Loki asked, causing Ashlynn to become confused. Who mourned?  
>  “We all did. Our father-“Thor said, before Loki cut him off, only up a single finger.  
>  “Your father,” Loki corrected Thor. He knocked Thor’s hands away from him, and began walking towards Ashlynn, causing the girl to attempt to move away from Loki, only for Ashlynn to slide backwards down a little inclined path. “He did tell you of my true parentage, did he not?”  
>  Thor watched him move, watching him closely. “We were raised together,” Thor said, following after Loki. “We played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of that?”  
>  Loki turned around slowly, looking to Thor with rather bored eyes. “I remember a shadow,” Loki said, looking Thor right in the eyes. “Living in the shade of your greatness, I remember you tossing me into an abyss. I was and should be king.”  
>  “So, you take the world I love for imaginary raceme sights,” Thor said, gesturing out towards the endless view of forest and mountains. “No, the earth is under my protection, Loki.”  
>  Loki laughed, shaking his head. “And you’re doing such a marvelous job that,” Loki said, looking at him rather amused. “The humans’ slaughter each other in drowse, as you idling fret. I need to rule them, as why should I not.”  
>  “You think yourself above them?” Thor questioned, looking Loki deeply in the eyes.  
>  Loki thought about it for a second before coming to a rather quick answer. “Well, yes.” He replied, like it was obvious.  
>  “Then you miss the truth of ruling, brother,” Thor said, stepping closer to Loki. “Throne would suit you ill.”  
>  Loki shoved Thor away, rather upset by the answer that he was given, storming away from Thor and Ashlynn. “I’ve seen worlds that you’ve never seen or known about!” Loki yelled, rather angry now. “I have grown during my exile, Odinson. I’ve seen the true power of the tesseract. And when I wield it-”    
>  Thor looked to his brother in disbelief. “Who showed you this power?” Thor questioned, now jumping back into seriousness. Ashlynn got to her feet in a rather shaky manner. “Who controls would be king,”  
>  “I am a KING!” Loki screamed into Thor’s face.  
>  Thor immediately grabbed onto his brother’s arms. “Not in this world!” Thor yelled right back. “Give up the tesseract! Give up this piousness dream!” Thor grew a bit softer, his voice becoming calmer as well. “You come home…”  
>  Loki let out a little noise, rather amuse. “I don’t have it,” He admitted, not caring really. Thor didn’t like that answer, he stepped back, and held out his hand. The hammer come flying from its spot on the ground, and into Thor’s hand, only to raise it in the air. “You need to cube to bring me home, but I’ve sent it off to I don’t know where.”  
>  Thor pointed the hammer to Loki, looking at him seriously. “Now you listen here, and well brother-“Suddenly a metal suit of armor came flying out of nowhere, tackling Thor off the cliff they were on.  
>  Loki stood there, just staring at the rock wall in front of him, before his eyes went off towards where Tony had tackled Thor off of. “I’m listening,” He said, before letting out a chuckle. His eyes went Ashlynn. “Well, if it isn’t the half Solider…” Ashlynn froze a little, and watched as Loki walked towards her with a rather evil smirk on his face. “A girl that is tied to the past by her great-grandmother… And her God-Father too… And you’re meant to be dead right now as Barton said.”

Ashlynn took another step back, only to end up between a rock wall and Loki. She couldn’t really move at the moment, and she couldn’t really think either. Something about this man was sending so many mixed signals in her head; she didn’t realize that she had fallen to her knees.

> “I’m guessing the actual Solider knows who you are,” he said, kneeling down in front of her, and looking into her eyes. “He doesn’t know that you’re related to his long lost love, or that the same thing that was injected into him was put into you as well because you were dying. You cheated death; you got yourself few more years on this plane of existence. Isn’t the death of your parents on you because you got a little too chatty with some man you didn’t know because you lost your parents at a place where people go to, to look back on history?”  
>  “SHUT UP!” Ashlynn screamed, beginning to shake violently at the rather blurry memory that was beginning to resurface after so long of being tucked away in a very small forgettable place in her mind. “You don’t know me; you don’t know my life… Just shut up…” Ashlynn was losing herself a little, she could feel that feeling of being small and trapped inside some spot that she couldn’t escape from. “…It wasn’t my fault… I didn’t do anything… It was an accident, how was I to know that someone was after them…”

 

Ashlynn closed her eyes, just wanting it all to go away, and the feeling of air went by her, and voices were heard all around. When she reopened her eyes, she saw Thor, Tony, Steve and Natasha there. She just stared at them, before seeing Natasha come to her, and help her to her feet. Getting back onto the jet, Ashlynn sat the furthest away from them, and didn’t say a word. She was too shaken up that Loki, of all people, found out about all the things that she wanted to keep quiet about in her life, something that people didn’t need to know or they shouldn’t know in general.

But after all, Loki was a trickster. He could find out anything he wanted.


	4. Truths

Ashlynn sat in the medical wing, getting her side patched up from the sliding in Germany. She was staring at the wall in front of her, not really paying attention to what was going on around her. Of course SHIELD knew all her secrets, but whatever power Loki had to get those secrets from Barton was beyond her. It was most likely whatever power he wields though; he was a God, the Trickster. He could get whatever he wanted. A pad was held out to her, she took it without a word, and started to watch the security footage of Loki’s cell. Probably some things had happened before this, but when she began watching.

       “Oh, I’ve heard…” Loki said, looking into the camera. “A mindless beast, surprisingly he’s still a man. How desperate are you? You call on such lost creatures to defend you.”  
       “How desperate am I?” Fury asked, sounding so serious. “You threatened my world with war. You steal a force you can’t control, you talk about peace, and you kill because it’s fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that I did.  
       “Oh,” Loki coos at Fury, to taunt him. “It burns you to have come so close, to have the tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. For what, a warm light for all of man to share, then to be reminded of what power is?”  
         It had gone silent before Fury began walking away. “Let me know when all power wants a magazine or something.”

Ashlynn put the pad next to her, cut the footage. She wrapped her arms around herself. Loki broke into her mind, and shattered every little bit of strength she actually had in her. She grabbed her sweater that was next to her before slipping it on and heading out of the medical wing. She didn’t know where she was going, but she needed to go somewhere away from that pad, far away from Loki as she could. She was just wandering the hallways until she saw Phil and Tony. They saw her, and smiled at her. She stood there frozen, and for almost a moment, she saw visions of her parents behind them, causing her to turn around and wrap her arms around her closely. She was having issues breathing, and being near people wasn’t helping. Before Tony could even reach her, she rushed out of the hall, heading down to the living quarters and finding her room. She locked the door, and climbed onto her bed.  
Her back rested against the headboard, her knees pulled up to her chest. Her arms wrapped around her legs, keeping them in place. Her head fell onto the wall. She kept repeating in her head, it wasn’t her fault. Her parents kept her away from that life for a reason; she wasn’t the cause of her parents’ death. They told her nothing to protect her, how as she to know that man was after them. She was only three years old and sick.  
The knock at her door caused her to jump, and bang her head on the door. There was immediate over-ride of the lock and the door opened on its own. Ashlynn laid there holding her head in her hands. The mattress sunk down and hands covered hers.

        “Are you okay? I hope I didn’t cause you to be more injured than you already you…” A voice came from over her. She opened her eyes and saw Steve there looking down at her worryingly.  
        “I-I’m fine…” Ashlynn stuttered out, sitting up properly. “I’m just surprised that someone came down here.”  
        “Why didn’t you come up to the bridge up after you were in the medical wing?” He asked, clearly growing more worried. “You were really strange after you jumped onto Thor’s back… Did something happen? Did Loki do something to you?”  
        “He said somethings to me… But I honestly don’t want to talk about it.” She said, looking away from Steve, she did not want to tell him about it at all, he didn’t need to know about it, but the aura around was making it harder to do.  
        “Are you sure? I don’t want him to get to you, and nobody be able to help you…” Steve said, resting his hand on her cheek, causing her to look at him. “Are you sure you don’t want to tell me? I mean, I did tell you something pretty personal earlier today.”  
        Ashlynn just looked at him before nodded her head slowly. “I should probably talk about it; I haven’t talked about it ever really…” She said, taking a deep breath. “I was three years old at the time, and I was originally a rather sick kid growing up. One day when it was a good day for me to be up and out of bed, we were in DC. We went to the Smithsonian to see the Second World War exhibit there, mainly I wanted to go and see the Captain America and his Howling Commandos… As soon as we got there, there was a tour, I was meant to wait for my parents before joining the tour because they needed to get a map of the place first, but I ended up getting mixed up in the tour anyways. We got to the Captain America one, I only then realized that I was missing my parents, I went to one of the guides, and told them I couldn’t find my parents. We ended up sitting at one of the benches; the person kept asking all of these questions… I didn’t know that they were after my parents because of my family. They wanted something and at the time, I didn’t know about SHIELD or anything of this really. My parents were coming to get me, until my father noticed something about the person who I was with, and told me to come to them now. My father was the first to start moving, he got shot first, my mother moved quickly around him to get to me, and I was at arm length away before she was shot as well. I was horrified, because I thought it was my fault that this happened. Over the years, it replays in my head over and over again. And I can’t help but think it was my fault, but at the same time, I didn’t know what was going on. Maybe I shouldn’t be beating myself so much over it, but I can’t stop it.”  
        Steve sat there listening to me; clearly taking in all that I had went through since I was so young. I had been with Tony since I was so young. I barely remember my parents; I only had photos of them. I became a genius with barely any friends. I have family that love me, yet at the same time are too dangerous to be around. I was contently at danger no matter what. “Your parents wouldn’t want you to beating yourself over it for one,” Steve said, after a moment of letting it all sink in. “They would want you to move on from that. I know it’s hard because you think you did something bad for telling people about your family, but at the same time, you didn’t know because you never knew and you were so young. Now you know though, your life may be different, but they rather see you happy in life rather than beating yourself up over their death. They were trying to protect you; they probably didn’t think they would use you so soon to get to them.”

Ashlynn was speechless; no one had ever really told her an answer like before, they told her to grow up and not blame herself, they never gave her a huge explanation like that before. She slowly broke out into a smile. For once in her life, that heavy burden had lifted off her chest completely, and she realized that Steve was right. They were only trying to protect her, they didn’t know that someone so bad would use her to get to them so soon since she was so young. She leaned into Steve, wrapping her arms around him, holding him tight. She couldn’t have thanked him enough. Steve didn’t hesitate to huge Ashlynn back, holding her even closer, knowing how relived of something after so many years of it having a tight grasp upon her.

       “I’m wondering anything thing,” Steve said softly to her, still holding her. “How did you get better if you were so sick? Did Tony have something to do with it?”  
       “Yeah, Tony had a big deal with me getting better,” She said, not bothering to give any more information than that was needed.  
        Steve didn’t push for any more information; he just ran a hand up and down her back smoothly, and slowly. They stayed like that for a while before finally; Steve leaned back, smiling down at her. “You look much better,” He commented, laughing a little. “But I have to go, there’s something I need to look into…”

Steve had begun to get off the bed. Ashlynn sat there, wondering what he was talking about before she got up herself and catching him at the door before he had gotten out into the hallway where they wouldn’t be able to have a private conversation and possibly lose him within all the SHIELD agents that walked on board the ship.  
        “Steve, what’s going on?” she asked, worries growing in her eyes now. “Is something going on that I don’t know about?”  
         Steve was hesitant for a moment, before he sighed. “I honestly don’t know what’s going on, but I’m going to look into it,” He said, before turning back to the door, but he stopped himself, and looked at Ashlynn.

She stood there, not sure what else to say, she wasn’t going to follow after him, because that would cause to many questions to pop up and then word to head to Fury about her and Steve being secretive about something behind everyone’s back. Steve continued to stare at her before taking her face into his hands softly, and before slowly to move his face towards hers. Ashlynn’s stomach began to flip inside her stomach for a few more seconds before she turned her head away, causing Steve to kiss her head, the place where she bumped it on the wall earlier.  
          “Now is not the time…” She whispered, taking a step back from him. Steve looked at her, letting his hands dropped to his side, nodding his head. He saluted before heading out the door, leaving Ashlynn standing there during her lonesome.  
Ashlynn waited for a few minutes to let it all sink in before letting out a frustrated groan. She could have gotten a kiss from him. He’s attractive and she was pretty sure that she liked him. Yet at the same time, she wasn’t sure what to feel like when a person was meant to like someone romantically. She turned on her heels, leaving her room and heading straight for the lab without a second thought. Bruce and Tony are smart, they would have answers.  
She walked into the lab, and both men looked at her with a raised eyebrow.                          
           “What’s got you so frustrated?” Tony asked, holding out a bag of chips to her to eat.  
           “How do you know if you like someone?” She asked in an instant, opening the bag of chips to snack on.  
            “Um, do you feel happy?” Tony asked, eating some blueberries, not sure where this was going.  
            “I feel insanely happy around him,” Ashlynn replied, hopping up onto a table to sit on. “I feel safe whenever I’m in the same area as him, and I feel like nothing could hurt me. He makes me forget my worries when I look into those baby blue eyes of his. I almost kissed him, but I turned my head away because it doesn’t the feel like the right time to do that. Also the fact, I haven’t been completely truthful to him about who I am, yet right now, I’m worried about him because he said that he needs to look into something because he doesn’t know what to think at the moment either with this while Loki mess!”  
           Tony started chuckling a little, before eating some more blueberries. “This is all about Capsicle.” He said, shaking his head. “I can’t believe that you gained feelings for him just like Peggy. Maybe it’s in the genetics that’s causing it. Or maybe your Peggy’s younger self reincarnated.”  
            Bruce looked to Tony, shaking his head. “What are in those blueberries?” He questioned, before looking to Ashlynn. “You’ve known him longer than the rest of us; maybe you two have such a deep connection because you’re kind of alike. He seems comfortable around you.”

Ashlynn continued with munching on her chips, nodding her head. She really couldn’t argue with the genius’ in the room with her. At least she had someone to turn to, and then Tony showed up in front of her, looking at her in the eyes. He knew something was different with her. He could probably just feel it.

          “He helped you get rid of your biggest burden…” Tony said, realizing the huge difference in Ashlynn’s ocean blue eyes. “You told him about your parents’ death. He actually managed to do it…”

Ashlynn’s cheeks tinted red, looking away from Tony. He was readying her like a book. She looked to Bruce, noticing that he was smiling at her as well, like knew how hard it was getting over huge burdens like that, and how good it feels in the end to finally have it all gone. Most likely because he didn’t have to worry about becoming the Hulk so much anymore once he figured out how to get it under control.  
           “Anyways, what’s going on? Something around here just doesn’t seem right…” Ashlynn said, putting her chips to the side. “I know I should have realized it earlier, but a lot was going on, and then with some down time, you really begin to notice that we aren’t getting the whole truth.”  
                “That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Tony said, handing her his little device.

Ashlynn took it from Tony’s hand, and looked at it, seeing that he was running a virus to crack all of SHIELD’s files that were locked to them and pretty much everyone one else. She looked to Tony, knowing that after seeing this, she was on Tony’s and Bruce’s side for the time being.

   
Ashlynn was helping out around the lab when Fury came marching in. He looked at the three on them, but he turned his bad eye to Ashlynn, obviously not wishing to believe that she was involved in this. After all, she was a founder of SHIELD’s great-granddaughter.

        “What are you two doing?” he questioned the obvious answer to that he knows about the virus. “You are meant to be searching for the tesseract.”  
        “We are,” Ashlynn replied, causing Fury to look at her. “Once we get a trace of it in a five thousand mile radius, then we’ll get you your location that you need.”  
         “You are the last person I would expect to be doing this kind of thing,” Fury said, clearly disappointed in her.  
          Ashlynn shrugged, obviously not caring. “I’m the great-granddaughter for the first female spy, so this actually should be the thing that you should expect from me,” she replied, eating a chip from the bag.  
          Tony was looking at the screen when something popped up that caught his eye. “So, what is phase two?” he questioned Fury, looking at him, wanting answers as much as the other two in the room with him.  
          “Its weapons development,” Steve said, dropping an old gun onto the table, causing Ashlynn’s eyes to widen.  
          “That’s HYDRA made…” she whispered, looking to Steve with shock before looking at Fury.  
          “We only gathered everything that was related to the tesseract-“Fury said, before Tony cut him off, before turning the screen before us.  
          “Wait a minute, Nick,” he said, looking at Fury with a clearly amused face. “What was it about that lie?”  
          On the screen was plans for a missile that was meant to kill many people. From what, Ashlynn didn’t know, but when she looked at Fury. “Really, what would the founders say if they saw this Fury? And the council that runs SHIELD? They were the ones that came up with this obviously.” She said, growing more and more disappointed in SHIELD. This was on shady organization.

Ashlynn stood back, looking at the screen closely. This was something of high energy, and Silvic was working on something like this? How did he even get into something like this? Most likely got lied to and doesn’t know the whole truth about the matter. It was the only thing that explained a lot about what was going on. As everyone was arguing around her, she was slowly becoming rather annoyed about it. Everyone was shifting the blame to someone else, and it was a continuous cycle. This had happened before, this was what lead to the making a several countries around the world, this was going to end up being a individual war, where more people would get killed if nobody started actually listening to each other. When Bruce began speaking, and everyone was listening to him, it didn’t help when Fury called out to her.

          “And what about Ashlynn, nobody really even mentioned her as being a danger,” Fury pointed out, causing her to look at the man. “Why is no one on her case, she’s on SHIELD’s watch list as well,”  
          “How am I on that list?” she asked, glaring at Fury. “I’m not a threat, the only time I will be a threat is when I want to do something that is right, and right now, I’m thinking about becoming one.”  
          “We can’t treat you like a threat though, because the government would get pissed at us for that.” Fury said, glaring right back at her.  
          “Oh, I know why,” Ashlynn said, throwing her hands in the air, before pointing to Steve. “After I turned ten apparently the council decided with the government that it would be a good idea to make a back-up plan, if Captain America over here ever decides to go rogue or dies that I’m meant to pick up the position because I’m half a Super Solider. Heaven forbid that anyone realize that the reason why that happened was because I was dying!”  
           “You were dying?” Bruce asked, looking at Ashlynn with shocked. He obviously didn’t hear this about her.  
           “I was five years old when I had to get injected with the last two serums that was injected into Steve,” she explained, not really caring that she was spilling the beans that this point, since everyone’s truths are being spilled out in front of them all. “I was dying, and we had no other choice as a way to save me. Because I was so little, two of them was all I needed to become half of what Steve has inside of him and I’ve been like that for years. Only for five years later that I end up pretty much property of the government, the only reason I’m not actually, because my dear great-grandmother made it clear that if the government ever decided to take away my freedom that she would have SHIELD turn against them.”  
            “You’re still a threat no matter what,” Natasha said, siding with Fury.  
            “I AM NOT A THREAT!” Ashlynn yelled, her arms automatically going off to the side, punching her hand through the screen, causing everyone to jump a little.

Ashlynn looked to her hand, pulling it back to her body, but her eyes landed on the table. Loki’s sceptre was on the table on not on the stand like it originally was. She looked to Bruce, who came over to her, and pulled her into a hug. For some reason it was reassuring, mainly because they were both put on the spot like that due to being who they were. Bruce had a beast inside of him that nobody really knew if he was bad or good, and Ashlynn was just a replacement for another hero. They weren’t seen as themselves, they were seen as dangers and things that could be controlled.  
The sound of something coming up in the scanning, causing Bruce to let Ashlynn go, and head over to see what was going on, it only lead to everyone arguing again, but Ashlynn was looking at her hand. There were times that she kept forgetting that she could break things more easily now. Sometimes, she keeps remembering that she was younger, and barely had any strength in her body at all. Her and Steve were so much alike, but are both from such different times.

She didn’t hear any kind of warning, because when she looked up again, she caught Steve’s gaze, only for an explosion to happen, and she was sent flying out the window behind her. On the way down, her head crashed into a bar, and her vision became blurry. When her back hit a solid surface, the air left her lungs, and her head bounced next.

The final hit of her head, caused Ashlynn to black out all alone on a deck with a thirty-five thousand feet drop below her.


	5. Explained

Noise, shouting, it was all blending together in her eyes. Her lungs felt like she had been stepped by the entire Russian Army. Her side where she got the skid wound stung like someone had poured lemon juice onto it. The sudden roar was what awoke Ashlynn from her hazy slumber. Her vision was swaying, and she could barely even take a proper amount of air into her. She looked around, seeing that the carrier was slightly tipping to one side, indicating that an engine was definitely down. She got to her hands and knees, crawling towards a door to get inside faster before she died of lack of air. To say the least, it was easier said than done. Getting inside was the hard part, due to having barely any oxygen to breath in. Once inside, she was taking as many breathes of oxygen that she could get into her lungs before heading towards Loki’s cell block. This was what he wanted, everyone to drop their guard, everyone to question everything about each other. Everyone to lose faith in each other, to forget the issue at hand, the lives of seven billion people, and they rested on their shoulders.  
Ashlynn rushed through the halls, shoving past people, knocking them over if she had to. She needed to get to Loki. Someone needed to get there, to keep Loki from escaping. It would give them a chance to at least find out more about the tesseract since it was right over them apparently, at least that had to be what the beeping meant if they were being attacked right now. Sure, she should probably be staying away from Loki, but right now, the entire world was at stake.  
She continued to shove past people, not completely sure what she could even do if she did get to Loki on time. This was a race against the clock and if they were just seconds too late, everything would be out of their hands until Loki decided to attack once again. Ashlynn took a corner and began sliding into the wall.

                “Dammit…” Ashlynn muttered to herself, pushing herself through the all, taking leaping steps to get down the hall, even jumping over people to get there.

She saw Loki’s in her sights when Thor came out of nowhere and show that Loki was being released. She heard Thor cry out, rushing towards Loki to only be tricked by an imaginary image, trapping Thor in the cage now. Ashlynn began to creep slowly now. She couldn’t risk at getting caught by Loki. She slipped into the room, dropping down the platform to a lower and smaller on underneath that went around it. She could see Loki, and she prayed that she actually managed to sneak up on him.

                “The humans think us immortal, shall we test that?” Loki asked, moving towards the control panel. The sound of the guard dropping caused Ashlynn to look, seeing Phil there with some kind of gun.  
                “Step away please,” he said, pointing the gun at Loki, then did a brief glance down at the gun he held. “Like this? We started to work on a prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don’t know what it does.” Phil turned it on, and smiled. “Want to find out?”

Ashlynn was too late to notice that Loki had snuck up behind Phil. Loki stabbed him, and Thor cried out, Ashlynn could only stand there, in horror at what she saw. Why didn’t she notice sooner that Loki was there? Maybe she didn’t understand the God as well as she thought she did. Now because of it, she lost another person that was so dear to her. She let herself slide down the wall, having her hands cover her mouth, to keep back to sobs that were threatening to break from her throat at any second. The hatch below them opened up, showing a clear view of the ground. The next thing that Ashlynn knew, Thor was dropping in the cage, and she was alone with Loki. She watched him leave the room, and she waited a few more seconds before climbing back up to see Phil.

                “I’m so sorry Phil…” she apologized, stepping closer to him. “I should have noticed him sooner…”  
                “It’s not your fault,” Phil said, coughing a little, smiling still at her. “You’re still so new to this whole super hero thing.”  
                Ashlynn kneeled down next to Phil, taking a hold of his hand. It was still so warm. “I feel like if I didn’t come down here, we would have lost our chances to stop Loki and actually save the day, but in the end, I couldn’t save anyone…” She said, giving his hand a squeeze. “I try to save someone, but I can’t. Why was I given the serum anyways? I can’t do anything with it; I can’t use it properly…”  
                “You’re going to be an amazing hero,” Phil said, laughing a little, only causing him to cough more, and this time, blood began to come from his mouth.    

Ashlynn shook her head, her tears beginning to fall more, and she couldn’t keep back the sobs that released from her lips. Phil was always there, just like the rest of them. He watched her grow up as much as anyone. She didn’t realize that Fury had arrived, when he rested a hand on her shoulder, and looked to Phil.

                “Coulson now isn’t the time to be getting all weak,” Fury said, making the man look at him. “You need to keep your eyes open.”  
                “I’m clocked out, sir,” Coulson said weakly.  
                Fury shook his head, not taking that as an answer. “That is not an opinion.” Fury said his voice firm.  
                “It’s okay, Boss,” Coulson said, smiling weakly. “This was never going to work unless they had….” Coulson’s voice trailed off, and the look in his eyes began distance. Ashlynn felt the warmth in his hand disappear. She let out a choked sob, dropping Phil’s hand from hers only to look at Fury with the most heartbroken face that he had ever seen.

A medical team came to the scene in seconds, Fury stood up, leaning against the railing. Ashlynn just sat there next to Coulson, and she heard Fury talk to everyone through the comm. Phil was gone. They were too late to save him. He was gone to the world. Fury stayed with Ashlynn until the Medical team carried Phil’s body out, Fury followed after them, sending a final look to Ashlynn, before leaving her there by herself, as she stared at the wall across the way.

   
                “I bet your ass is numb from sitting there.”

Ashlynn looked up to see Tony had walked into the room. His face was a little bruised up and dirty. But if it hadn’t been for him, they would have fallen from the sky to their deaths. Everyone here had done something amazing today, that Ashlynn knew she was the useless one here. Why did anyone think that she could pull off being the second Captain America? She wasn’t a hero, she was just some kind gifted with enhanced abilities due to the fact she was dying.

                Tony came over to her, and stood in front of her, and sighed. “You couldn’t save Coulson could you?” he asked, watched how dark her face grew with sadness. “Phil died believing that all of us could be great heroes, that that includes you. You never really had to proper training due to me being so over-protective of you. I just didn’t want to see you sick again like you were before, it always broke my heart.”  
                “Yeah, well I was given a gift that I couldn’t control from the beginning,” she said, pushing herself off the floor, and Tony was right, her ass had gone numb from sitting for so long on a hard surface. “Then people are expecting me to be able to be up to Captain America’s standards because I have the same serum running through my veins.”  
                Tony nodded his head, making room for Ashlynn to stand at the railing with him.  They both stood there, staring down at the hatch. “Was Coulson cool when he died?” Tony asked, curious about the man’s final moments.  
                “He was really cool,” She confirmed, laughing a little. “You probably would be shitting bricks if you had seen it.”

They both shared a soft laugh, before dropping off into silence again. Maybe it was hard to believe that someone like Phil was gone in a flash like that. He was a good guy, and it was always the good guys that died first because they didn’t deserve death so soon. Sometimes Ashlynn wondered if whatever greater power that was out there wanted the others to suffer for whatever mistakes they had done, by taking a good person.

                “Was he married?” a new voice joined in. Tony and Ashlynn didn’t even need to look up to realize it was Steve.  
                “No,” Tony answered, still standing there, staring at the hatch. ‘there was a cellists… I think…”  
                Steve seemed to have understood more with those words. “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “He seemed like a good man…”  
                “He was an idiot,” Tony flat out stated, looking at Steve.  
                “Why?” Steve asked, taken back by the sudden negative comment. “For believing…?”  
                 Tony began to take steps backwards, and began his way over to Steve. “For taking on Loki alone,” Tony said, sounding like an asshole at the moment.  
                “He was doing his job,” Steve counter, not liking how Tony was disrespecting a solider.  
                Tony scoffed, shaking his head. “He was out of his league,” Tony stated, walking more to Steve. “He should have waited.”  
                Steve began walking towards Tony as well, wanting to stop the man from leaving the room before this conversation was even over. “Sometimes there isn’t a choice.” Steve pointed out, really getting into this.  
                Tony pointed towards Steve, nodding his head. Tony mumbled something under his breath, the Steve spoke. “Is this this first time you lost solider?” Steve asked, looking for at least an honest answer from Tony.  
                “We are not soldiers!” Tony said firmly, clearly not happy with how this was turning out, “I am not marching into Fury’s fight,”  
                “I’m not either,” Steve agreed, standing there. “He has the same blood on his hands as much as Loki, but right now we have to put that behind us and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source-“  
                Tony cut off Steve, after glancing at where Phil had died, and then looked back to Steve. “He made it personal.” Tony stated, causing Steve to get confused, and about to say something about it before Tony continued talking. “No, that is his point. That is his point. He hit us right where we live but why? “  
                Steve gave it thought for a few seconds before replying. “To take us apart,”  
                Tony nodded his head, noting that Steve was at least keeping on track with whatever Tony was saying. “He wants us to grieve,” Tony said, hitting his hands together. “He knows that he has to take us out to win. That’s what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants to be seen on the news.” Tony began walking towards Ashlynn again, getting onto something.  
                “Like in Stuttgart,” Ashlynn said, getting the idea what Tony was possibly getting at, yet wasn’t so sure where his thoughts were going.  
                “That was just pervious,” Tony said, pointing at Steve and her, agreeing that the both were right. “This is opening night, Loki is a full tail diva, he wants flowers, he wants a parade, and he wants a monument in the sky with his name plastered on it- That son of a bitch.” Tony realized exactly where Loki was going when he finished with those last few words. He began to rush off before looking back to Steve and Ashlynn. “You two have things to talk about, and I suggest doing them now just in case one of you falls into a coma during this.”

Ashlynn stood there, wondering what in the hell Tony was talking back, only for Steve to go back to where he was originally standing, like in a way to give her space. She looked at him across the room, and raised an eyebrow, indicating that he should just ask her what was on his mind.

                “So, they still had the serum?” Steve asked, really confused about what was even going on. “I thought there was only the ones that were injected into me.”  
                “Dr. Erskine gave one to Howard Stark and one to Peggy Carter…” Ashlynn explained. “Howard died before I was even born, so the vial was passed down to Tony. And Tony was never going to use it unless it was to save the world, same with Peggy. The say I was born, sick and weak, nobody really knew what to do… Peggy almost injected me with it, but Tony had stopped her because he wasn’t sure if the serum would have killed me. Like I said before, I would have died when I was five, but both Tony and Peggy had to go through with it even with risks, because they couldn’t lose me.”  
                “How do you know Peggy and Tony even?” Steve asked, clearly more confused.  
                Ashlynn laughed a little. “The Starks were family friends.” She said, looking up at Steve. “I mean, what do you expect, I am Peggy’s great-granddaughter.”  
                “…Why didn’t you tell me?” Steve asked the hurt in his voice rather clear.  
                “Because I didn’t want you to see me as my grandmother,” She said, looking away, ashamed that she had to lie to him about that.  
                “I never thought of you as Peggy, some of the things you did have reminded me of her,” Steve said, pushing his body away from the railing and heading towards her. “What’s your actual name Ashlynn, your full name?”  
                Ashlynn looked to Steve, before rubbing the back of her neck. “Ashlynn Maxine Carter-Stark,” she said, smiling rather sheepishly at him. “I go by Stark normally because it drops the threats for me a little so I don’t have to be guarded by men. If the world knew my last name was Carter, there would be a lot of very bad men after me.”

Steve had finally stood next to Ashlynn looking at her with a rather blank face for a while. She honestly thought that she made the man hate her, but when he leaned down and kissed the top of her head, the worries went away. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her to him, and they stood there for a moment before Natasha and Clint came walking in, eyebrows raised.

                “I hate to break the two of you apart, but we have a little Loki issue to deal with,” Natasha said, smiling at the two of them.

Ashlynn let out a laugh, before slipping out from under Steve’s arm, and began to make her way over to them. Steve didn’t take long to follow, he was next to her in second, slipping his hand into hers, giving it a soft squeeze. She knew that maybe the reason why she wasn’t a good hero so far right now was because she was holding herself back in many ways. Yet with Steve by her side, maybe that wasn’t going to be an issue anymore


	6. Chapter Six- First

****The four of them walked into a jet, nobody asked them nothing, or getting even stopped to be sent back. They were on a mission, and deep down, Ashlynn had a pretty good idea that possibly Fury had an input in all of this. She didn't care. Natasha looked over he shoulder, winking at her, before tossing something for Ashlynn to catch. In Ashlynn's hand now was a gun, making her look at Natasha with a raised eyebrow. “What is this for?” Ashlynn questioned, really wanting to know why Natasha just gave her a pistol.  
        “It's back up, I have a sniper rifle ready for you to use,” Natasha said, turning back around, which lead to Clint to slip a rifle around her shoulders, and catching up to Natasha, leaving Ashlynn alone with Steve once again. Steve looked to Ashlynn, and she looked back to him, smiling sheepishly.  
        “Peggy's idea,” She told him, giving his hand a squeeze. “We never told Tony,”  
        Steve couldn't help but crack a smile at her, chuckling a bit. Ashlynn was about to say something before a worker came aboard the jet and looked at the four of them, she looked to the worker, and was about to say something before the man beat her to it. “You aren't authorize to be here,” he said, looking at the four of them, like they were all flashing their butts at him. Obviously had hadn't been in SHEILD long.  
  
        “Kid, don't.” Steve stated, giving a serious look to the guy, and Ashlynn kind of winced at the sound of hearing Steve say 'Kid'. Though, it made the guy stumble off the jet quicker then probably anything she could have done.  
  
        Natasha was looking at Ashlynn noticing a change within her body. “Oh, what happened now?” she asked, obviously finding this slightly amusing.  
  
        Steve looked to Ashlynn, raising an eyebrow. “What's wrong?” he asked, quickly worried that he might have done something wrong to upset Ashlynn.  
  
        “Don't say 'kid' ever again,” Ashlynn said, looking to Steve, cheek slightly flustered. “You're starting to make me feel like I'm grave robbing though you are pretty much the same age as my physically.”  
  
Steve looked at her, before chuckling a little. Natasha laughed, along with Clint, who was in the pilot seat, getting ready for lift off. Natasha took the seat next to him, becoming the co-pilot that he was probably going to need. Steve grabbed a vest from a bag, pulling the rifle from Ashlynn's body, before placing the vest on her. She grabbed gloves that were laying close to her, slipping them on, and making sure that they wouldn't slip off while she was climbing or anything. Once Steve had to vest placed on her, he looked to her, and she smiled.  
  
        “I'm going to be okay,” Ashlynn reassured him, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe after this is all dealt with, maybe we can go and catch a move or something,”  
  
        “I wouldn't mind that, where should I pick you up?” he asked, fixing his mask onto his head. “Stark Tower?”  
  
        “If it's still standing, then yeah, if not, then we'll figure it out,” she said, grinning, while she leaned up, kissing his cheek softly. “A date then?”  
  
        Steve smiled at Ashlynn, pulling her closer to him, and nodding his head. “Yeah, it's a date,” he confirmed, slipping a comm. unit into her ear. “You ready to fight?”  
  
        Ashlynn looked to Natasha who seemed to be talking to Clint, but it was obvious that she was also watching Steve and her also. “Yeah, I'm ready, I think this will be a good stepping stone for the future.”  
  
Steve tuck some hair behind Ashlynn's ear before she pulled out a hair tie and pulled her hair back into a ponytail and made sure the it was mostly out of her face. Being able to see in a situation like the one they were going to be end up going into was a bit important, she had a date to go to after all. Ashlynn moved to the front of the plane looking over things, before looking out the window and her eyes widening. She wasn't expecting to see that when they got closer to Stark Tower, and seeing beings that nobody has seen before was a really something else, and maybe a bit overwhelming.  
  
        “Steve, was the war like this? Seeing things that you've never seen before?” Ashlynn asked, looking over her shoulder to the Super Solider, who was looking out the window as well at what they saw.  
  
        “Yeah, but nothing like this...” He said, his hand just reaching out to rest upon Ashlynn's arm, as in a way to remind himself that she was there, and this was going on, but he wasn't going into this alone. Not anymore at least.  
  
Ashlynn reached out, resting her hand upon his, intertwining their fingers, and giving his hand a squeeze. This was pretty big for the both of them. Ashlynn's first time being in combat, and Steve's first time being in combat after seventy years after being in ice. They had an entire world to protect and there was only like seven of them that were going to protect about seven billion people. They were going to be able to do this, they could stop this. Ashlynn believed in them. They needed to do this, they were not going to let some God push them down, it was their time to stand up.  
  
        “ _Where they hell where you, stopping at a Drive Thru?_ ” Tony's voice came through the communication unit, making Ashlynn roll her eyes, at least Tony was still being funny.  
  
        “No, just Ashlynn and Steve have a moment,” Natasha confirmed, a bit of mirth in her voice,making Ashlynn glare at the red-head in the seat in front of her.  
  
        Tony sighed, obviously finding Ashlynn and Steve a bit ridiculous right now. “ _Go up Park, I'll lay them out for you,._ ” Tony said, cutting off the communication.  
  
        Natasha looked to Steve and Ashlynn, and Ashlynn knew things were about to get serious, causing her to to sink back into Steve's body, because that made her feel safe and knew that nobody was going to touch her if she was with Steve. “Okay, you two, this is what you must do, stay together,” Natasha ordered, pointing at the two of them. “It'll take stress from Tony's mind knowing that you aren't running off on your own.”  
  
        “Got it,” Ashlynn agreed, looking to Steve, who's arm wrapped around her waist, as the other held on tightly to a handle that was next to him. “I got your back if you got mine,”  
  
        “I always have your back,” Steve said, smiling at her, chuckling.  
  
        “Until the end of the line,” she whispered, causing Steve to freeze, before smiling softly at her. “Grandma Peggy told me how you use to say that with your best friend Bucky,”  
  
        “You don't know how much that-” Steve was saying something before the jet jerk, causing Steve's grip to tighten, and smash Ashlynn into his body, as in a way to shield her for whatever was about to come. Ashlynn's hands immediately grabbed onto Steve's suit, burying her face into his chest. As the jet was falling from the sky, Steve let go of Ashlynn to check her into the wall, sandwiching her between his body and metal to keep the both of them from flying around. The landing was rough though, Ashlynn still managed to crash her face into Steve's body, and it hurt, but luckily no bloody nose.  
  
The four of them rushed from the jet once they were stopped. Ashlynn was looking up at the sky, seeing the aliens that flew around, and she felt her stomach clench. She looked to Steve, who was looking right back to her, and she nodded, letting him know that she was okay, and that the fact that a whole munch of aliens were flying through a portal to a whole other world that that across the universe. It felt so unreal but at the same time, it was actually happening.  
  
        “We gotta get back up there,” Steve stated, as the four of them rushed towards Stark Tower, only for them to stop at the sound of something rather large roaring from over head.  
  
What Ashlynn saw come through, she only could think of a whale and an eel had mated and this was the out come of it. Big, ugly, and something that you would find in Resident Evil as a final boss or something. It was massive, and she continued to watch in awe as it flew down and over their heads, releasing more of those aliens into the city. Ashlynn took a deep breath,before even saying anything.  
  
        “Tony, please tell me you are seeing this...?” she asked, watching everything that was going around them. Were they actually going to be able to stop this even?  
  
        “ _Oh, I'm seeing it, still working on believing it,_ ” Tony said, sounding like he was actually pretty close to them now, probably following after that whale-eel thing. “ _Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?_ ”  
  
        “Banner?” Steve questioned, looking to Ashlynn if she had any kind of what Tony was even talking about. All she could do was reply with a shrug.  
  
        “ _Just keep me posted_ ,” Tony said, before cutting out to do whatever he was planning to do now.  
  
The four of them looked around, Ashlynn looked towards the buildings that were around them, and she could hear the screaming from all around them. “We have civilians trapped in these buildings, we need to figure out a way to get them out and to safety,” she said, pulling her rifle from her back and beginning to take aim and start shooting down as many aliens as possible.  
  
        “Their like fishes in a barrel down there,” Steve noted, watching the people run across the streets as they were getting shot at.  
  
        Natasha began shooting at the Chitauri, as Clint moved forwards, to start fighting. “Both of you, go, we got this,” Natasha said, looking to Steve and Ashlynn.  
  
        “Think you can hold them off?” Steve asked Clint, making the archer look at him with a smirk.  
  
        “Captain,” Clint said, getting his arrow ready. “It would be my genuine pleasure.” Clint pulled the arrow from his quiver quickly and smoothly, before taking aim and firing, taking one Chitauri down, only for the arrow to shoot off bullets of his own.  
  
That was the cue for them to getting going. Natasha got to her feet, as Steve and Ashlynn took a running start to the over pass they were on. Steve jumped first, followed back Ashlynn. The two of them ran across the top a roof of a bus, whole the Chitauri shot at them. Jumping down onto a car before the engine gotten hit, causing it to explode. Steve had jumped first, the blast of the explosion pushing him a little bit further ahead, but just enough that when Ashlynn came crashing down, he caught her easily within his arms. Letting Ashlynn slip from his arms, the two were off again, racing ahead towards the police. The two were jumping over car hoods, sliding across the ground. Ashlynn had her rifle out, and shooting as many as the Chitauri as possible as they made their way down the avenue. Steve got ahead of Ashlynn, jumping onto the hood of a police car, as Ashlynn got behind a flipped car, beginning to shoot Chitauri from the sky, watching them crash to the ground.  
  
As Steve was giving orders to the police, a rather large explosion happened rather close to them. Chitauri came from the smoke. Two landed near Steve, as three came rushing towards Ashlynn. Steve was easily handling the two that were fighting him, Ashlynn just barely managed to take down one of the before a hand grasped her throat, and she had to pull out her pistol and began shooting at the Chitauri that held her off the ground, blocking anyway of breathing. Once finally finishing that one off, a shield came from nowhere, sending the finial Chitauri back, letting Ashlynn whip around, placing her pistol back into the holster that was strapped on her thigh and grabbed her rifle to make a clear shot to the head. The police began doing their thing after witnessing that little fight. Who knew that witnessing two humans fighting five aliens is what it took for someone to finally listen.  
  
        Steve came over to Ashlynn, doing a quick check to see if she was okay. “I'm fine, but we should get back to Clint and Natasha, it seems like it's getting a little too much for them to handle,” she told him, looking back to the over pass, seeing a lot more Chitauri there then there was when the two of the them left.  
  
Steve nodded his head in agreement, before the two of them went racing back towards the over pass, taking care of as many Chitauri as they could, along with trying to get people off the streets. The two jumped onto the over pass, knocking back a few Chitauri before lightening came from nowhere, indicating that Thor had finally arrived to join them. Thor landed, rather weakly, causing Ashlynn to wonder what the Thunder God had just went through.  
  
        “What's the story upstairs?” Steve asked, as the four of them went over to Thor to figure out what was going on now, and to make a better course of action.  
  
        “The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable,” Thor said, letting them know that they couldn't just go hitting at the cube now.  
  
        “ _Thor's right, we gotta deal with these guys,_ ” Tony chimed in, causing them to look up, wondering if Tony was anywhere near them right now.  
  
        “How do we do this?” Natasha questioned, obviously wondering the same thing as Ashlynn. How was six people where meant to deal with this? Maybe seven if Banner decided to finally show up.  
  
        “As a team,” Steve answered, looking over to the other four that.  
  
        “I have unfinished business with Loki,” Thor stated, causing Clint to chuckle.  
  
        “Yeah? Well, get in line,” Clint said, his voice edging with how he was feeling about Loki.  
  
        Steve sighed, not wanting to deal with person grudges right now. “Save it,” Steve ordered, walking into the center of them. “Loki is going to keep this fight focus on us, and that's what we need. Without him these things could run wild.” Steve then pointed towards the sky. “We got Stark up top, he's going to need us-”  
  
A sound of a motorbike broke Steve off, causing him to look over his shoulder, as the others looked around Steve to see who it could possibly be, to the surprise of many of them, it was Banner. Ashlynn rushed passed them, because she actually looked up to Banner, and it made her happy that he was okay at least. Even after he had hulked out.  
  
        “Well, this all seems horrible,” Banner pointed out, looking around him, making Ashlynn laugh a bit.  
  
        “I've seen worst,” Natasha said, and that made Ashlynn look to Natasha, then to Banner, before placing the pieces together.  
        “I'm sorry,” Banner apologized, and he obviously felt bad for losing control, and it would seem like he scared Natasha a little bit.  
  
        “No, don't apologize,” Natasha said, smiling a little bit. “We could us a little worst,”  
  
        Those words seemed to have surprised Banner a little bit, and even cracked a smile. Ashlynn felt like the team was finally coming together, which was probably good. “Stark, we got him,” Steve said, letting Tony know that Banner had arrived.  
  
        “ _Banner?_ ” Tony questioned, wanting to confirm that he was there.  
  
        “Just like you said,” Steve confirmed, with that look of wonder in his eyes.  
  
        “ _Then tell him to suit up,_ ” Tony said, his voice having a bit of mirth in it. “ _I'm bringing the party to you,_ ”  
  
Everyone looked to Ashlynn now, obviously wondering if she could possibly shed some kind of light on the fact that Tony wasn't telling them anything, but at that moment, Ashlynn just clued in on what Tony was planning to do, making her the first person to look around when she heard that Chitauri whale-eel thing come around the corner of one building, Tony ahead of it.  
  
        “I don't see how that is a party,” Natasha said, obviously very confused about what Tony was even talking about.  
        “It was a figure of speech,” Ashlynn said, watching Tony fly overhead.  
  
Banner began walking towards the thing was was currently flying towards them, causing Steve to rush ahead a few steps as the intentions to stop him, before he thought of something else. “Doctor Banner, I think it's a good time that you get angry,” Steve said, watching as the thing was even closer then before.  
  
        “That's my secret,” Banner said, looking over his shoulder at them, smiling as he did so. “I'm always angry,” He turned around in a shift movement, and they all watched Banner shift from small, smart, scientist to huge, green, rage machine.


	7. Chapter Seven- One Step Forward

The hulk's fist connected with the head of the whale-eel, causing the rest of the thing to pretty much go upwards. The armor it wore, falling off of it due to the force of the hulk's punch and the way that it was currently moving. Tony flew back up, firing a rocket into a wound of the beast, causing it to blow up. Clint had shielded Natasha, as Steve used his shield to protect Ashlynn. Once the explosion had subsided, and there wasn't anything else falling onto them, they all stood together, as the Chitauri screamed at them.

        They stood there for a few minutes before Ashlynn and Natasha looked up, seeing two more of those beast come through, along with a lot more Chitauri. Ashlynn looked to Steve, and nodded her head. “So, what's our game, Captain?” Ashlynn asked, reloading her rifle. 

        “Alright, listen up,” Steve said, walking ahead of them a little bit, and turning to look at them. “Until we can close that portal up there, our priority is containment.” He pointed to one of the buildings. “Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything, call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter, if anything gets three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash.” 

        Barton looked to Tony, ready to get behind this. “Wanna give me a lift?”

        “Sure thing,” Tony said, walking over and talking Barton with him as he flew off, getting to work right away, which was probably for the best.

        “Thor, you gotta bottle up that portal,” Steve said, knowing that they needed to slow down the flow of Chitauri that were coming through that portal at the moment. “Slow them down. You got the lightening, light those bastards up.” Thor with his orders, quickly left, heading up towards the portal, leaving Steve, Natasha, Ashlynn, and Hulk on the ground. “Us three, we stay on the ground, keep the fight here,” Then Steve turned to Hulk, wondering what to do with the big guy. “And Hulk, smash.”

Hulk smirked at Steve, before jumping off to do his thing. Ashlynn ready her rifle, before beginning to shoot everyone that she could in sight. Natasha began dealing with one's that were on the ground, as Steve went for the close combat method of bashing their heads in with his shield. Ashlynn tried her best with keeping the Chitauri off of Natasha and Steve from a distant. If Tony flew by, even him as well, and on the rare occasion of Barton. Other then that, they still needed a way to close that portal. 

        “Have fun with the Captain,” Natasha's voice was heard, causing Ashlynn to look over to see Steve launching her into the air. 

        “We'll I'm a little jealous,” Ashlynn said, laughing, that was before a blast from on of the Chitauri's gun flew by her head, making her whip around and start shooting at the Chitauri that arrived. “Wanna count this as a first date?”

        “One hell of a first date!” Steve called out, laughing as well as he ran past her and began to punch out some of the Chitauri once again.

Ashlynn continued to keep shooting any that got too close to Steve, before she had to fall back onto relying on her pistol for support. She was going through bullets quickly until she ran out completely. Dropping both weapons, Ashlynn rushed over, jumping into the air to get enough height to smash her fist into one of their faces. Steve threw his shield towards her, bouncing off a Chitauri that was behind her before she caught it, breaking off one of the Chitauri's legs, bashing it in the head to clock it out, throwing it back to Steve when she was done. Sharing Steve's shield went off of awhile between the two before Tony arrived for a moment. Ashlynn slide away, giving Tony and Steve room to knock down a lot more Chitauri then herself and Steve were doing before he went off to take care for some that were close to Barton.

Steve had gotten knocked down by a Chitauri, wrestling with the thing upon the ground. Ashlynn was about to toss Steve his shield before she herself had gotten tackled as well. With her only way of defending herself, she curled up onto a ball and the Chitauri attack the shield that was the only thing protect her from the weapon that was currently being slammed down on to the surface of the shield. Luckily the weight was taken off of her not much longer after, and Steve helped Ashlynn to her feet. 

        “ _Captain, bank on the corner of Madison, they cornered a lot of civilians in there,_ ” Barton's voice rang through communications, making Steve look to Ashlynn, who was handing his shield back to him. 

        “I'm on it,” Steve said, taking back his shield, and Ashlynn took a hold of his hand and gave it a squeeze. “What?”

        “Go, I'll hold them off here for you,” Ashlynn said, causing Steve's eyes to widen, and he opening his mouth, only for her to cover his mouth with her other hand. “Trust me, I got this. Go help them, it's for the best,” 

Steve wanted to protest, but he saw the determination in Ashlynn that she wasn't going to drop this. With a firm nod, Steve rushing off towards the bank, leaving Ashlynn there. She turned around, seeing Chitauri there once again, and she smiled. Rushing towards them, using each Chitauri as a way to keep herself above them as she did what she could to put them down with just her hands and her feet. Ashlynn was slowly making her way towards the bank where Steve was at, before she saw an explosion and flying from a window to land on a car. Knocking two Chitauri back, Ashlynn dashed through the street, sliding across car hoods to get to Steve's side. 

Once she was, she took his face within her hands, making him look at her. Looking at his face, she realize that they were both a bit beaten up, but that didn't matter. With her help, Steve slipping from where he landed on the car hood, holding onto Ashlynn. There was a cut on his arm, but it wasn't anything serious, it was probably from when he landed on the car. Everything seemed like background noise now, and Steve seemed to only have his eyes on Ashlynn.

        “Are you okay?” she asked, brushing his hair from his head, making sure that he didn't seriously hurt himself from the explosion.

Steve was only staring at her, she was growing worried that he might had hit his head a bit harder then she thought before she was pulled towards him in a rather passionate kiss. His hand rested on the back of Ashlynn's head, keeping her there as they shared a kiss. Her hand's were resting on the side of his neck, returning the kiss with just as much energy before breaking apart, leaving Ashlynn there slightly out of breath. She couldn't help but smile, at least he proved that he was okay, but that was the last thing she expected from him.

        “Does that answer your question?” He asked, smiling down at her, and brushing her hair back from her face as well, causing her to laugh softly, and rest her head upon his chest.

        “That answers more then one,” She said, closing her eyes to take a moment. 

Steve kept an arm around her, letting her have that moment she needed. First time being in such a serious fight, Ashlynn could feel everything going on within her body, and she was pretty much to the point that she was going to faint because her heart was just beating so fast with adrenaline rushing through her. Finally, after a deep breath, she pulled herself away from Steve, the both of them knew that they couldn't be away from the fight for too long, so letting go of each other, they both rushed off back towards Stark Tower, taking down as many Chitauri as possible along the way.

        “ _Stark,_ ” Fury's voice rang through communications, as Ashlynn knocked a Chitauri away from her and towards Steve to deal with. “ _You have a missile heading straight for the city,_ ” 

        “ _How long?”_ Tony asked, making Ashlynn realize that Fury was talking to Tony, not her. 

        “ _Three minutes, max._ ” Fury said, making Ashlynn suddenly to become really nervous. Whoever was running SHIELD, they were sending something that they thought could deal with the problem, meaning a lot of lives were going to end here if they didn't do something about that missile. “ _Payload could wipe out Midtown._ ”

        “Do they even know how many lives that they will be taking if they do this?” Ashlynn asked, looking to Steve, who was too busy dealing with Chitauri to notice the conversation between Fury, Tony, and herself.

        “ _Yeah, they do, but they obviously don't care,_ ” Fury said, not happy about current events, not that Ashlynn could blame him, she was pretty upset right now as well. 

        “ _Ashlynn, are you doing okay? I know you're with Capsicle and all, but are you holding up okay?_ ” Tony asked, sounding pretty worried about her right now, because only actually have a moment to worry about her.

        “I'm fine, Steve's keeping me safe, I mean, I'm only fight with hands and legs now, but I'm holding up well,” She reassured him, kicking a Chitauri away from her. “...Are we going to be able to stop this missile?”

        Tony was silent for awhile, before he finally spoke up again. “ _Yeah, we're going to stop it._ ” He confirmed, before cutting communications with her and Fury.

Thor arrived, knocking a Chitauri away from her, bringing Ashlynn back to the moment, before she rushed over to one of the Chitauri that was over powering Steve, and kicked him back, before taking Steve's shield quickly and using it to punch the thing in the face, throwing the shield back to Steve before she went running at more Chitauri, knocking them back into Steve or Thor. At one point, Ashlynn had Steve's shield, and she heard the gun go off, hearing Steve groan, she looked over her shoulder to see him fall to the ground. Luckily, Thor knocked them back, giving Ashlynn the time she needed to rush back to Steve's side again, and helping him up with the help of Thor.

        “Are you both ready for another bout?” Thor asked, as Ashlynn looked over the new wound that was on his torso. It was bad, but not too bad, yet she was worried that Steve was beginning to slow down.

        “What? Are you getting sleepy?” Steve joked, breathing heavily, but not like his life was in any kind of danger.

Ashlynn handed Steve back his shield once again, as Thor summoned his hammer. The three of them stood there, letting Ashlynn to wipe some of the dirt from her face, probably making it worst, but honestly, she didn't care. She looked around, knowing that she was most likely the only one who heard Fury about the missile,and she couldn't help but worry that Tony wasn't going to be able to stop it in time. But, she had to believe in him, Tony knew what he was doing. 

        “ _I can close it,_ ” came Natasha's voice. “ _Does anyone copy? I can shut the portal down._ ”

        “Do it!” Steve cried out, desperation in his voice.

        “No!” Both Ashlynn and Tony called out, making Steve look to Ashlynn, shock written in his face.

        “Stark these things are still coming through,” Steve stated, still looking at Ashlynn, only for his face shift to worry when Ashlynn's showed horrified realization at what Tony was planning to do, and looked up towards the tower in a panic. 

        “ _I got a nuke coming, it's going to blow in less then a minute,_ ” Tony shared, causing Ashlynn's heart to race faster and faster with each passing second, because she knew what he was planning to do now. “ _And I know just where to put it._ ” 

Ashlynn was about to go racing to Stark Towers when Steve had pulled her back, keeping her there with him. Ashlynn looked to Steve, pretty much frantic at this point because of all the thoughts that were going through her head. This honestly couldn't be happening right now to them. 

        Steve looked down, and she watched as something behind his eyes seem to become broken, making Ashlynn's heart feel like it was stopping. “Tony, you know that's a one way ticket,” Steve confirmed, his grip tightening around Ashlynn to keep her on her feet and to keep her with him.

        “ _Save it for the return,_ ” Tony said, cutting off communications once again from them.

Ashlynn could only stare at Steve, and Steve could only watch her. He saw so many raw emotions within her eyes, he felt a bit of himself break at the sight of it, making him crush Ashlynn to his chest, as he looked to the sky, making the girl he held in his arms do the same. The three of them watched Tony fly pass, heading straight for the portal before he finally went through. Minutes seemed to have passed, and Ashlynn's hold on Steve tightened as she watched. Steve looked to Ashlynn, closing his eyes as he made the call.

        Ashlynn watched the portal close, and the tears began to fall down her face, before her voice caught in her throat, she saw something fall through at the last second. She watched, realizing it was Tony, a smile slipped onto her face, though it slipped right off when she noticed something wasn't right. “He's not slowing down,” She stated, breaking away from Steve to begin to rush forward, thinking maybe she could break Tony's fall.

Thor was readying himself to fly up there to stop Tony from falling, but from no where came Hulk, grabbing onto Tony, and sliding down a building and coming towards the three of them on the ground, and placed Tony there once Hulk landed on the over pass. Hulk ripped the face plate from Tony's face, Steve being the first one there, checked to see that he was breathing, but his face remained grim. Thor stood there as well, seeming like he was figuring if there was a way that he could help. Ashlynn was ready to rip the armor from Tony's chest to see if she could get the reactor in his chest to start up again. As for Hulk, he let out his mighty roar, causing Tony to awake in a startle, taking in a sharp breath of air and his eyes snapping open.

Hulk let out another roar, this one to show that they had won, and Tony was looking around, probably wondering what the hell was going on... Actually he did say what the hell... But that was beside the point. Ashlynn looked over to Steve, before crawling over to his side, pretty much too tired at this point to even walk properly. She brought Steve into a hug, and Steve held her, not planning to let her go it would seem, but Ashlynn was okay with that.

        “What just happened?” Tony asked, looking at the four of them that were around him. “Please tell me nobody kissed me.”

        Steve couldn't help but smile down at Tony, feeling many things come off of him now that everything was slowly coming to a stop around them. “We won,” He shared simply, kissing the top of Ashlynn's head.

        Tony laughed, before saying and began rambling because it was obvious that he was tired just like the rest of them. “Good jobs guys, let's like not come in tomorrow,” he said, letting his head fall back against the ground, showing that he had no power to keep his head up. “Have any of you tried Shawarma? There's a little joint not too far from here, and I wouldn't mind trying it.”

        “Sure, let's go get Shawarma,” Ashlynn agreed, patting Tony's chest, causing the man to groan, which lead to her laughing a him. “You are so old,”

        “At least I'm not the one dating the Capsicle,” Tony pointed out, making Ashlynn hit him a bit harder, making Tony possibly curl in on himself because of his remark.

        “We're not finished here yet,” Thor said, reminding us of one loose end that we kind of needed to tie up before we did anything else.

        “Then Shawarma after,” Tony confirmed, clearly trying to wrap his head around everything that was going on. At least he was alive.

 

>\-----------<

 

Everyone met up at Stark Tower, heading up to the penthouse level of the tower, where Loki laid still, but he was slowly beginning to move, getting into a proper position, before finally realizing at he wasn't alone anymore like he previously thought he was. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the very people that stopped him.

At the front of them was Clint Barton, arrow already in bow, pointing right at Loki, ready to fire if the man even tried anything funny to get away from them. Next was Tony, he stood proud in his Iron Man suit, really not happy, but that was probably due to the fact that his Tower was just ripped to pieces, after it had just been finished. Next to Tony was Steve, with shield on arm, both equally banged up, but both still one. Steve's free arm was wrapped around Ashlynn's shoulders, a pistol in hand, aiming at Loki as well, because if Barton missed, she was the next one that was going to fire. Thor was next to Ashlynn, looking unimpressed at his brother, but a little heavyhearted as well due to the fact that his brother wasn't really there anymore, and didn't want to believe that his brother would turn to such evil. Natasha was standing somewhere in between Thor and Clint, Loki's spear in hand, probably ready to use it if she had to. Finally, behind them all, was the Hulk; still big and green, and ready to smash Loki if he even flinched towards them.

        Loki knew now, there was no chance that he was going to win against them. “If it's all the same to you,” Loki said, taking a lazy seat upon the step that he was using to help him. “I'll have that drink now.”

 

>\-----------<

 

Everyone met up at Central Park, everyone was looking a lot better then they were a few days ago,but it was probably for the best. They all had some pretty good injuries. Everyone in normal clothing was nice too, because it was a way of saying that the world was at peace now, for a little bit anyways. Ashlynn watched with the others, Thor leaving with the Tesseract and Loki in a tunnel of blue. She looked up to Steve, causing her to smile more, knowing that this was going to be the start of something huge, honestly, this was something she looked forward to.

Everyone began to depart. Tony passed Ashlynn her duffle bag that she slipped onto her back light it was a backpack, as Natasha gave Bruce a bag as well. Tony gave Ashlynn a hug, knowing that she was going to be in a safe place while the Tower was being rebuilt, and he knew it was time to finally start letting her go. Bruce and Tony got into Tony's car, Ashlynn waved to Tony before heading over to Steve, where he stood by his bike. Steve slipped on first, before Ashlynn climbed on behind him, holding tightly around his waist. Steve started his bike before taking off as well, heading towards Brooklyn.

Ashlynn rested her head upon Steve's back, watching New York fly pass her, and she gave a huge to Steve from behind, knowing that she wasn't useless, but she actually mattered to more people then she ever realized.


	8. Chapter Eight- Kind of Moving In

    "No, I'll be there tomorrow," Ashlynn said, trying to build a shelf while she was on the phone with her best friend, Peter Parker. "Well, you saw what happened on the News, I was in that freaking fight too you know," She listened to him rant for a few more seconds before cutting in. "Peter, I kind of have to heal, as well as wait for JARVIS to pretty much make copies of all my homework, and Tony has to buy me new textbooks- HEY, I was not the one asking a Norse God to wreck my school stuff!"

In the kitchen, Steve had finished putting the fridge in, along with placing the food back into it. Ever since the whole Chitauri fight about a week ago now, Tony was fixing up Stark Tower to make it more livable for the Avengers, as well as fix the damage that had been due by Loki. Due to that, Tony had requested that Steve left Ashlynn live with him until things were back in order from them so she could return to Stark Tower, and continue with her College life like normal. Now, Steve watched from the kitchen, his girlfriend, who was building his shelf for him to put his books on, talking on the phone with her best friend, from what Steve could get, was really worried about her.

Ashlynn was placing the shelf against the wall, shoulder holding her phone to her ear as she continued to talk away, as she started to place the shelves themselves in, talking about her history course, which seemed like they were talking about the world wars, and she was blushing a little bit, especially when it seemed like her friend; Peter, had brought something up. Thankfully, Steve has been on the internet these last few days and he saw a lot of the videos of him kissing Ashlynn after the that Chitauri bomb pretty much blew up in his face at the bank. A lot of people had different comments about it, and it pleased Steve that Ashlynn wasn't affected by it, since from a young age, she's been in social media a lot due to the fact that Tony was her God-Father and was raised by the man at such a young age.

"Peter, like I said before, I honestly could care less about what the entire world or New York has got to say about my relationship with Steve," Ashlynn said, causing Steve to chuckle. That also confirmed his thoughts about how much Ashlynn cared about other people's opinion. "I'm happy, Steve's happy- Tony's cool with it-" Steve raised an eyebrow when Ashlynn seemed to have gotten cut off and her lips became a thin line. "No, I haven't told her yet... I'm going to see her tomorrow with Steve. Peter, she's old, I honestly don't want her to have a heart attack over good news- So what? I don't want to be her cause of death, I love her Peter, she's like the only family I have left,"

Steve had came over at this point, wrapping his arms around Ashlynn's waist, letting her lean back into him. He slowly rocked them back and forth, hearing the mumble of Peter from the phone, but not being able to make out the boy was saying, but Steve was wondering what the two were talking about, but when Ashlynn did mention they were going to be seeing someone tomorrow, it confirmed a lot for him. Tomorrow, the couple were off to see Peggy. Steve was pretty shocked to hear that she was still around, but then again, she was a huge part of Ashlynn's life, and if Steve had to guess, Ashlynn is the reason why Peggy has been hanging on for so long.

"Yes, Peter, don't worry, I'll do it- Peter, you have a test to study for, just hang up already," Ashlynn said, Steve could hear Ashlynn pretty much rolling her eyes at the fact that the boy was still on the phone with her. "Parker, I know for a fact you cannot study and talk on the phone with me. Now study and text me later or something,"

Ashlynn simply hung up her phone after, placing it onto the newly placed shelf, and relaxed more into Steve's body. The two of them continued to sway back and forth softly, finding it rather calming, even though there was faint music playing in the background. It was still worth it. Steve was getting the hang of dancing, thanks to Ashlynn teaching him a few easy ways of dancing. Steve found it funny how Ashlynn had been the one to pretty much take over Peggy's roll to teach Steve how to dance, but it was nice actually having someone in his life. The plus side was, Ashlynn had the same serum running through her veins, but just a lower amount then him, but enough to give her the abilities that Steve has.

"You're friend okay?" Steve asked softly, finally quitting with the swaying, but still stood there with his arms around Ashlynn. "It seems like you both were having a rather intense conversation."

Ashlynn looked over her shoulder to Steve, and smiled at him warmly. "Peter's fine, he's just checking in on me," she said, shaking her head at how worried Peter sounded through the phone, and took it upon himself to be her voice of reason once again, but that was normal between the two. "He's been on the internet so much lately, honestly he's surprised, and not surprised that I'm in a relationship with you, but he's happy for us. Then again, he's also worry that I was never going to return to College, and he thought of Grandma Peggy, asked if she knew yet- Of course, when I said no, he started freaking out."

"Seems like you have a really good friend," Steve said, letting Ashlynn go to find the box of books that he has, and brings them over letting both Ashlynn and himself begin to put the books away. "How long have you and Peter been friends for."

"Hm, I would have to say since we were six, a year after I had gotten better, and I was allowed to start going to public school," Ashlynn said, thinking back to the days when herself and Peter could be found always at Central Park, even in the snow. "I've stuck with Peter for years, kind of can't think of anyone else I could possibly be best friends with,"   
"Well, I'm glad you at least have a friend that doesn't care about your money," Steve said, shifting some of the books around, before looking down at Ashlynn. "Are you worried that Peggy is going to have some kind of stroke for telling her about our relationship?"

"Possibly," she admitted, holding a book in her hand, seeming nervous now. "I mean, dementia is a pretty serious thing, and her getting excited tends to make her slip back to like months ago... It's painful, especially when she has times, that she slips back into years..."

Steve listens to Ashlynn, knowing that her concerns about Peggy are great. Steve since finding out about dementia had been taking the time to learn up on it, so he knew how to deal with it when it came to the times that he would visit Peggy on his own. Ashlynn has shared some stories with him about how she's dealt with it over the years since it started, but still pains the girl to see her Grandmother slip back and forth between time. Steve was a little nervous about going to see Peggy, but Ashlynn had saw Peggy earlier that week, and told Peggy all about how he was alive, and hopefully she would remember Ashlynn telling her about it, if they catch Peggy on a good day that is.

"You are sure that you're fine with me to see Peggy on my own?" Steve asked, looking at Ashlynn with a rather concerned look upon his face.

Ashlynn looked to Steve, raising an eyebrow with interest. "Should I have a reason not to trust you?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Steve shook his head, thinking it through, before taking a deep breath. "I mean, Peggy was my old crush, and you don't feel any amount of jealousy about this?" he asked, obviously trying to figure out girls still, and it only made Ashlynn smile more.

"Steve, honestly, I couldn't," Ashlynn told him, truthfully. "You were a huge part of her finding a good man, and making a family with him. Then not only that, you were all the bedtime stories heard for years,"

Steve laughed, pulling Ashlynn closer to him, and kissing the top of her head. The two of them stayed like that for a few hours before finally separating and looking to the shelf that Ashlynn made, knowing that they were going to need to fill it with the books now that it was finished. Steve simply let Ashlynn go, heading back towards the spare bedroom to go and get the boxes that were going to fill the shelf.

Hopefully tomorrow would go well.

>\------------<

Ashlynn stood outside her grandmother Peggy's room, as Steve was inside on her own. They had been at the hospital for nearly an hour now, but Steve kindly asked for Ashlynn to leave the room. Of course, Ashlynn respected that, and she had been standing out there for nearly ten minutes now, and she was wondering what was even going on in that room. Steve and Ashlynn hadn't even told Peggy about their relationship yet, both of them not wishing to possibly kill Peggy by the news. Now with not beginning in the room, she was really nervous. Ashlynn was about to go and get something to snack on before the door to open and she looked towards the door while being half way out of her seat.

Steve stood by the door, a soft smile on his face, making Ashlynn get up. She softly moved past Steve and into the room, a bit concerned that something had happened, that Peggy slipped back a few hours and gone into shock that Steve was alive. When she got closer to Peggy's bedside, she could see her grandmother's shoulder's moving, as if she was crying, making Ashlynn rush over and take a hold of her grandmother's hand.

"Grandmother?" Ashlynn asked, keeping a hold on her hand.

Peggy looked up at Ashlynn, a smile so bright upon her face, Ashlynn wasn't so sure when it was the last time that she seen a smile like that on Peggy's face. She was crying, but it seemed like it was over something else. "Oh, I'm so happy for you," Peggy said, using her free hand to softly touch Ashlynn's cheek. "I can't tell you how happy I am,"

Ashlynn couldn't help the smile that came upon her face as Peggy kept saying things. Going on and on how fate must have brought them together. Maybe Peggy was just meant to lead Steve towards the right way, only needed to lead Steve right to her. Ashlynn looked over her shoulder, looking to Steve as she had her own tears in her eyes. This meant so much to not only her, but to Steve as well. Peggy pretty much was giving her the blessing they both needed mentally to be okay with being together like they were. Deep down, Ashlynn knew that Steve still had feelings for Peggy, but she also knew that Steve also loved her.

The rest of the visit was telling Peggy about New York and how they've been spending the last week of so getting Steve's apartment in order in DC since both of them are being placed there for work. Peggy would tell stories about Steve back when he was just small and tiny, even joking about Ashlynn when she was only five and how it reminded Peggy of Steve so much. It seemed like the nurse came all too soon to let them know that it was time for them to leave. Giving Peggy a kiss from both of them, the couple left.

"That went much better then I thought," Steve said, sounding so relieved that things didn't end as badly as he thought they were going to. This made Ashlynn looked to Steve, a smile cracking onto her face.

"I'm happy, I was so scared that we were going to give her a heart-attack," Ashlynn asked, looking to Steve as they got closer to his bike.

Steve nodded his head, understanding what she was feeling, happy that things didn't turn out the way that they thought they would. The two climbed onto the bike, Ashlynn wrapped her arms around Steve's waist, resting her head on her back. It was always like that. It was relaxing to both of them. Plus, it was a comfortable way for Ashlynn to enjoy the view as they drove through the city.

"Ready to meet to the team?" Steve asked, starting the bike up, making Ashlynn look up at Steve.

"Let's get this done with, we still have so much to do with the apartment," Ashlynn said, leaning up, giving a quick kiss to the corner of Steve's mouth.

Getting back into comfortable positions, Steve took off, heading to SHEILD headquarters where both Ashlynn and Steve were going to meet Natasha and Fury to meet the STRIKE team that they were going to be doing missions with until another threat is welcomed to them and the Avengers were needed to be brought together once again.

Though Ashlynn didn't know what to think about it, especially a few months down the road when things were about to take a change that was going to flip everything around.


	9. Chapter Nine- STRIKE

Ashlynn arrived at Headquarters, getting called in for a mission. She was ready to wake up Steve even only to see that once again, the man had gone out, most likely to run that morning, even though Ashlynn asked him if he could stay in bed for the morning for once. Apparently, sometimes you can't change a man that needs the space after sleeping for pretty much seventy years. Rumlow had came and got Ashlynn himself as Natasha was tasked with getting Steve.

"Seems like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed," Rumlow commented, as the two of them headed towards launch bay to get their gear.

"If you count waking up alone and on your boyfriend's side of the bed, then yeah, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed," Ashlynn said, looking to Rumlow, before sighing.

Rumlow looked towards Ashlynn raising an eyebrow. Ever since meeting each other and started doing missions together, Rumlow and Ashlynn kind of became friends, which wasn't weird and they talked about the personal things when it was needed, so Rumlow knew by now what that sigh meant. "You how been talking to him about just disappearing like that right?"

Ashlynn looked to Rumlow, pressing the button to get them down to launch bay, before leaning against the side of the elevator. "Of course I have," She said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I mean, I understand that he's been sleeping for seventy years, but even then, he still needs to sleep, or at least wake me up if he needs someone to talk to,"

"It seems like you both are having communication issues," Rumlow pointed out, watching Ashlynn to try and probably pick up on other signs of other possible issues that the couple might be having. "Maybe you two just need a vacation, you know Fury would understand that the two of you just need to get away for maybe a week from all of this. The team will be fine without the two of you for a few missions, you both need time together as well,"

"I would love that, and hell, I've even brought it up to Steve, but he keeps saying that knowing out luck, things will go south and we'll just get called in," Ashlynn stated, remembering the conversation that they had maybe two weeks ago know about getting away together. "I understand that Steve still has issues separating the fact that we aren't at war anymore, but I've been trying to hard to just not blow a fuse within my brain, and blow up in his face about it."

Rumlow nodded, before reaching over and stopping the elevator before they were even anywhere close to the launch bay, obviously needing to say something before they had to go on this mission. "Do you think he might have the hots for the neighbor?" he asked, obviously trying now to sound rude, because Rumlow knew very well who their neighbor was.

Back at the apartment that Steve and Ashlynn lived in. Maybe a month of them living there, their new neighbor arrives, along with Ashlynn getting the run down as to why her 2nd cousin was there. Steve and Sharron get along greatly, but Ashlynn felt maybe a bit threatened by her own cousin possibly winning Steve over, even though Sharon was just their Neighbor Kate; the nurse that was really kind to them.

Ashlynn shook her head, lightly kicking Rumlow in the leg. "Of course not," Ashlynn said, before sighing once again. "Maybe moving in together so soon might be the reason why. I can always get my own place here in DC, give Steve some space. Maybe that's what is needed, is space."

"Who knows, but we can talk about this more later, we have something important to do," Rumlow said, getting the elevator started again, finally getting the two of them to the launch bay.

Rumlow and Ashlynn headed out, going towards where they needed to be. The two had a small conversation about getting the team to go out for dinner again, remembering how fun it was the last few times, and it would get everyone to catch up in people's lives who don't get to hang out with each other as often due to work and maybe family life. It was also a good way for pretty much everyone to get to know each other better outside of missions.

Ashlynn grabbed her jacket and vest, slipping them both on quickly, and in perfect timing for Steve to arrive, in uniform, to kiss her cheek. She smiled, and began to attach her equipment on her, before finally picking up her rifle and heading over to Steve, and standing beside him, and he knew that he was in trouble.

"Did I not ask you to take least stay in bed with me last night?" Ashlynn asked, looking down at the Captain, as he was kind of frozen in his position of fixing his boot. "I had to wake of this morning, to Rumlow, banging on the door and I had to stumble around to just find one of your shirts and a pair of sweatpants... As well as awkwardly explain my neck,"

Steve looked up, sheepishly smiling at Ashlynn, knowing that he was going to have to seriously make it up to her later for the mess he got her into once again in the morning. "I'm sorry, but I seriously felt restless laying in bed, even just moving around the apartment didn't help," he said, trying to smooth things over, and not make things worst than they could get. "And I met a guy today, his name was Sam Wilson, nice guy, two tours,"  
Ashlynn looked at him, before sighing, letting him off the hook once again. "You better be grateful," Ashlynn said, leaning down to kiss the top of Steve's head. "I'm letting you off the hook, I guess you making a new friend is something I can't get mad at,"

Steve laughed, getting to his full height and pulling Ashlynn to him, also kissing the top of her head. "You said I should have more friends than the Avengers, and I think Sam would be great to get along with, I even think you'll like him,"

Ashlynn shook her head before Rumlow called them over, making Ashlynn slip from under Steve's arms and look over her shoulder at him before heading towards the jet. "Let's get going, Captain, this mission isn't going to do it's self."

>\-------------<

_Indian Ocean- Lat. 16N 55' 12.06* Long. 72N 56' 7.09*_

Ashlynn stood in between Natasha and Steve when Rumlow began to give them the run down of what was happening and what their mission was. It seemed like a simple mission. Just a lot of hostages on a satellite platform called the Lemurian Star. Just taken over by pirates ninety-three minutes ago and they are demanding a billion and a half. No surprise there for the asking price, considering it was SHEILD.

The man that is leading this whole thing, Georges Batroc, an ex-TGSE, Action Division, on the top of Interpol's "red notice". Had thirty-six kill missions, with a rep for maximum casualties. This has got to be the most interesting man so for that they've had to go and deal with. As for the case of hostages, all techs, only one officer by the name of Jasper Sitwell, which Ashlynn had met on some rare occasions.

"What is Sitwell doing on a launch ship?" Steve questioned, looking to Ashlynn for some kind of answer.

"Probably just doing a check, can't do anything by computer always," Ashlynn said, going over to the screen, giving a quick glance over the information before looking back to Steve, who was also heading towards the back of the jet.

"Alright, I'm going to sweep the deck with Stark and find Batroc," Steve said, starting to give commands on what they were going to do about this. He pointed to Natasha to give instructions. "Nat, you kill the engines and wait for instructions." Then he pointed to Rumlow. "Rumlow, you sweep aft, find the hostages, get them to life pods and get them out. Let's go."

Rumlow turned around, looking to the rest of the team. "STRIKE, you heard the Captain, gear up!"

Ashlynn opened the hatch, looking to Steve, to see him looking back to her. Steve reached out and gave Ashlynn's hand a soft squeeze before they both began stepping towards the edge together. Letting go of Steve's hand, Ashlynn dived off the jet, followed closely by Steve. Ashlynn hit the water first, and was swimming towards the surface when Steve hit. As she was swimming towards the ship, Steve was right behind her. Once at the chain for the anchor, to climb on, Steve went up first, before Ashlynn followed. The two of them got on board, and quickly began to make quick work of the guards.

Steve grabbed the first guy, choking the man out, as it gave Ashlynn time to climb on, and start heading away from the two. The next two guards that they came upon, Ashlynn began speeding up her pace, jumping up onto one of the ropes holding whatever down, and using it to push her towards the closest guard, and knocking him out with a swift kick to the head, as she used his body to launch herself over the other guard and land on him before pulling out a taser and giving him a nice shock to his neck to knock him out. Steve came up behind her, running pass her, and causing her to follow.

Another three guards were ahead of them, Steve kicked the first one, spending him to hit the rail before falling off into the ocean. The second guard rushed over, making Steve sweep for the man's leg and knocking him to the floor. The third guard rushed at Steve, Steve caught the guy's arm, throwing him over his body, and made sure the man landing roughly on the floor, before punching him, to make sure that he was really knocked out. The second one was back to his feet, and Steve round house kicked him in the face, making for sure to knock the guy out.

Ashlynn rushed passed Steve, heading towards where they were going to be meeting up with Natasha and the STRIKE team. Closing in on another guard, Ashlynn shoved the man off the side of the ship, before rushing at the second guard ahead of them, going down low, Ashlynn tackled the man into the pillar behind him, slamming his head against it, knocking out of sure, and making sure that the man was resting against it rather then face first upon the floor. A third guard came up, leading Steve to kick the man back into the wall that were by the stairs. The man was about the pull the first alarm, before Ashlynn took the knocked out guy's knife and threw it into the man's hand, leading Steve to rush pass, and punch the guy out. Ashlynn got to her feet, following after Steve.

Following after Steve, he jumped over a ledge to get down to a lower deck, beginning to deal with more guards. Ashlynn pulled out her rifle, beginning to quickly shoot down some of the guards that were rushing at Steve, before looking up and getting a view of Batroc. She smiled, before putting her rifle back onto her back, before jumping down as well, and kick one guard on the face. Steve had thrown his shield at one of the guards, making it bounce off the wall and perfectly into Ashlynn's hand before she used it to knock out another guard that was on her, before she threw it back to Steve, when she was about to run back to Steve, she heard the click of a rifle at ready, and stopped everything she was doing, looking at Steve who looked a bit panicked before a gun was shot and the man fell.

Ashlynn looking over her shoulder, and smiled at Rumlow, and dusted herself off as a bit of a joke. "About time you got here," She said, resting her arms at her side, before she looked to Steve for further instructions.

"Did you get any sight of Batroc?" Steve asked, looking to Ashlynn, who nodded her head, and pointed towards the control room.

"Honestly, I'm not surprised that he is up there, it's a perfect place to be, and it's easy to get out of, many possible ways to escape from," Ashlynn said, beginning to head towards where Batroc was.

That was all that was needed to be said before they all separated once again. Steve and Ashlynn took off running towards Batroc and she luckily perfectly aimed a listen device on the window, where it wouldn't be seen. Of course when Ashlynn began to listen in, they were speaking French and her face grew grim.

Steve looked at her as the two of them both stopped to stay out of sight, and wait for the others to get into position. "What's wrong?" Steve asked, going to Ashlynn's side, worried that something was wrong.

Ashlynn looked to Steve, before running a hand through her hair. "Speaking French," Ashlynn said simply, making Steve realize the problem.

Ashlynn for the most part could speak many languages because of Tony traveling around the world and a lot of other reasons. There were a rare few languages that Ashlynn couldn't speak, and French was sadly one of them. It wasn't anything against the people of France or anything like that, but the fact that she found the language difficult to understand or even speak, which was once again odd, but it just seemed a bit too difficult for her and she couldn't remember how to speak it. Luckily for them, Steve understood French, and it was a blessing to them.

Ashlynn and Steve continued to move, getting into position. Steve was watching Batroc from around the wall, as she was behind him, waiting for what she needed to do.

" _STRIKE in position,_ " Rumlow said through Channel 7, making Ashlynn take a deep breath.

Steve brought his wrist up to his mouth to whisper into it, making sure that no other guards would hear them. "Natasha, status,"

Silence was given to them, before Steve called out again after a few minutes. "Status, Natasha!?"

" _Hang on!_ " Natasha said, obviously in a bit of a position to be busy by the sounds of it, but perfect enough timing for Steve to look at Ashlynn.

"Ashlynn, I want you to stay here, watch Batroc. If he manages to get away from me, I want you to follow after him the best you can." Steve said, making Ashlynn nod her head, knowing that it was the wise choice, and that it was the smarter thing to do rather then them both heading up there.

" _Engine room, secure_ ," Natasha said through Channel 7.

Steve looked to Ashlynn, getting a nod from her, knowing it was time to get started with this. "On my mark, three...two...one."

Steve took off running towards where Batroc was. Ashlynn moved closer to the corner, getting ready to rush out at moments notice. She watched from the distance while Steve threw his shield through the window, and jumped through it to deal with Batroc. Though Batroc made a run for it, Ashlynn shoved off from the wall, rushing off in the direction that Batroc was running from. Jumping down onto a lower deck. She continued to carry herself, zoning out the channel unless her name was said.

She was about to round the corner when she heard something connect with Steve's shield, stopping herself from running out into the open, and making Batroc realize that she was there, Ashlynn stayed behind the wall, listening in on what was going on. There were kicks being thrown around, and punches. Batroc was obviously at the top of his game, something that wasn't shocking. After all, he was on the top of Interpol's "red notice". A door breaking was what Ashlynn almost made her step out from where she was before she saw Rumlow, and she looked back to where Steve obviously was before going to help Rumlow.

Rumlow saw her, and smiled a little before looking around her. "Where's the Captain?" He asked, as the two of them began getting life pod's ready for the crew.

Ashlynn looking to Rumlow, looking over her shoulder for a split second before going back to what she was doing. "Dealing with Batroc, seems like a pretty intense fight." She told him, beginning to get people lined up to climb into the life pods.

Rumlow looked to Ashlynn again, noticing something was a little off. "You didn't go help, why?" he asked, really curious as to why Ashlynn decided to help them rather then Steve.

"Because, I would probably only get in the way," She said, looking to Rumlow, shrugging her shoulders. "It's just one guy, he really doesn't need me to help."

Rumlow was about to say something again, before the sound of an explosion happened, causing them all to look behind them. It was from the area that Steve and Batroc had been. Ashlynn began to rush towards there, her feet carrying her as quickly as possible. When she got there, Steve was walking out, a look on his face that caused Ashlynn to slow to a complete stop, she was about to reach out to him, but his hand stopped her from grabbing his arm, letting her go and continued to walk. Ashlynn's eyes followed after Steve, and not even noticing that Natasha walked out as well, leaving Ashlynn to follow loosely behind them until they got aboard the jet to take them back to DC.

Ashlynn just hoped that their date wasn't called off.


	10. Chapter Nine-Compromised

Ashlynn at least had gotten an apology from Steve as to why he was like that before. Seemed like Fury did something to really push Steve over the air this time, and Ashlynn respected that. Fury has done things lately to Steve that really didn't make the man happy, and at times, even made Ashlynn rather upset as well. So, with a soft kiss, Steve told Ashlynn to have her meet him at the Smithsonian Museum, which she was currently at now, watching an interview with her grandmother. That also reminded Ashlynn that Steve was going to see Peggy today while she was in DC before she went back to London for a bit.

Getting up from the interview, Ashlynn headed off towards the displays, pasting the one about Steve being denied enlistment, and went to the one about the Howling Commandos. For as long as Ashlynn could remember going here, this was her favorite display... Not her number one, but she was getting there. She couldn't help but smile at the thought of it, seeing the pictures in the background of when Steve was in the time he was born in.

Since she began her relationship with Steve, she always wondered what it would have been liked to meet him back then, rather then now. Meet him before he was Captain America, when he was just Steve Rogers, a boy from Brooklyn, with poor health, but a best friend that would give anything to him... Even his life.

        “ _Best friends since childhood, Bucky Barnes and Steven Rogers were inseparable on both schoolyard and battlefield. Barnes is the only Howling Commando to give his life in service of his country._ ”

Ashlynn stood in front of the Bucky Barnes display that they had to offer, and she couldn't help but laugh softly as she remembered the stories that Steve shared with her about Bucky. And even then, she would begin thinking if things were different and she wasn't born now, and she was back in that time, back when Steve was just tiny and sick. Maybe she would have became close friends with Bucky too, hell, she might have even stupidly fallen for him as well.

When her and Steve talked about their past, Ashlynn always tried to talk about the time when Tony was missing all those months before Iron Man. Those were a hard time for her to talk about because Ashlynn only had Tony around all the time. When he was kidnapped like that, she had grown scared and she barely left the house in Miami. Steve would always get her to stop because it pained him to see her like that, so broke. It seemed like any of the times with Tony before the Avengers were really touch on Ashlynn... Tony, Pepper, and Peggy mean so much to Ashlynn, Steve just couldn't bare the thought of that pained looked upon her face when she was talking about something harsh.

For Ashlynn towards Steve talking about the war, she couldn't bring herself to stop him. It seemed like Steve just went into autopilot when he began talking about any of it, but whenever it came to the part about Bucky falling from the train, Ashlynn would get up and kiss Steve to stop him. That looked upon his face when he always talked about losing Bucky was something Ashlynn couldn't bare to see upon him. She had to remind Steve that Bucky wouldn't want him to keep holding onto it. Bucky knew that Steve tried to save him, and was so close to doing so, but it was just how fate decided to play.

After one night, few hours after Steve tried to tell her again, Steve had a horrible night terror, that Ashlynn finally put her foot down, and told Steve that there was no more talking about that moment, and that Steve was only allowed to talk about the good things that involved Bucky, all the good memories. Maybe even some of the bad if they had a good end to them. But there was no more of him talking about Bucky's death, and placing the blame upon himself anymore.

A hand on Ashlynn's shoulder broke the girl from her thoughts, only to realize that Steve was there, but it seemed like the museum was mostly empty, making Ashlynn look up to see that she had been sitting in front of a movie playing about Bucky and Steve, making her looked to Steve.

        “You've been here for awhile, the guards said you kind of had that thousand yard stare going on, most likely from being in thought,” Steve said, helping Ashlynn up, making the girl realize that her legs were a sleep, and Steve had to catch her before she fell. “What's got you thinking so heavily?”

        Ashlynn looked to Steve, then back to the film that was being displayed until Steve carried out of the room to bring her back to him. “I was thinking about what it might have been liked if I had met you back then, rather then now,” Ashlynn said, getting a strange look from Steve. “What?”

        “I'm pretty sure I would have been too blinded by Peggy to even notice you,” Steve said, sounding rather guilty of saying such a thing to Ashlynn, but it was rather true, yet it also made Ashlynn laugh.

        “I mean before in Brooklyn, before Mr. Captain America,” she said, wrapping her arms around Steve's shoulder's, not wishing to fall from them. “I honestly know I wouldn't mind weak Steve a single bit, and I think I would have even been good friend's with Bucky,”

        Steve looked to Ashlynn, a surprised look on his face, laughing a bit, kissing the top of her head. “I think you and Bucky would have gotten along great as well, I honestly think you would have the boy whipped,” he said, laughing a bit more at the thought of Bucky and I even around each other. “So, how did I manage not to find you when I arrived?”

        “Don't know, I mean, I was there the entire time, maybe because I was so lost in thought I just kind of blended in with the crowd,” Ashlynn said, making sure she didn't fall over when Steve helped her onto the back of the bike, before getting on himself. “I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention, I was just so lost in thought when I got there, I just started thinking about so many things, a lot of 'what if's' you know.”

        Steve looked back over his head, smiling down at Ashlynn. “I know, and I know for a fact, I probably would have been head over heels in love with you if I had met you back in Brooklyn,” he said, starting up the bike, and heading back towards home.

Ashlynn rested her head against Steve's back, watching the lights fly past them in their rainbow like mess. Even though she told Steve that, she honestly couldn't stop thinking about that. Being younger then Bucky and Steve, and running around with the two of them. Making sure that Steve was okay when he couldn't go outside. Taking care of him when he did. As they slowly got older, maybe stupidly fall for Bucky when she really liked Steve to begin with. The thought brought a smile to her face, thinking about how she would hit Bucky for breaking another girl's poor heart. Making him learn his lesson and maybe, just maybe, things wouldn't be how they were now. No Steve going into the ice. No Bucky dying. Hell, maybe Ashlynn and Bucky would be together, Ashlynn would let Steve go if he was happy with Peggy.

The two of them arrived home, getting off the bike, and heading up the stairs, they were about to unlock the door when Sharon walked out of her apartment to do laundry. Ashlynn waved, happy to see her, but Steve didn't know the personal relationship that the two held. Maybe one day, Ashlynn would get the chance to introduce the two.

Ashlynn was about to say something, before a curtain sound caught her attention, breaking away from the conversation to leave it to Steve to deal with Sharon for the time being. When Sharon was doing down the stairs, Ashlynn knew that Sharon caught on that something wasn't right either and was going to be ready if something started to happen. Steve was planning to go through the front door before taking Ashlynn's arm and decided that they were going to go through the window.

The two of them go through the window that was in the kitchen, opening the window quietly. Steve went in first, followed by Ashlynn. Following closely behind Steve, the two of them made their way slowly towards the living room, Steve grabbing his shield along the way, indicating that he had gone home after his talk with Fury earlier that day. When Steve went around the corner, he seemed to relax at the sight of whoever was there, making Ashlynn come out from behind Steve and see Fury sitting in the chair.

        “I don't remember giving you a key,” Steve said, sounding a bit upset that Fury was there with no kind of message of letting him know that he was going to be there waiting for the both of them.

        “You really think I'd need one?” Fury questioned, obviously finding the question stupid, which really was since Fury was the ultimate spy. “My wife kicked me out.”

        Steve stood there, rather confused, but went along with it, as Ashlynn was picking up something with the way that Fury was using his words. “Didn't know you were married,” Steve said, finding that rather interesting.

        Fury seemed to have smirk, but Ashlynn was finding it hard to tell due to the lighting in the room. “There are a lot of things you don't know about me.”

        “I know, Nick. That's the problem,” Steve said, reaching over to turn on the light, revealing the current condition of Fury, making both Steve and Ashlynn tense up, something wasn't right, but Fury turned the light out again, and showing his phone to Ashlynn and Steve.

**-EARS EVERYWHERE-**

        “I'm sorry to have to do this” Fury said, shifting around in his chair, typing something out while he was at it. “But I had no place else to crash.” He showed his phone once again to them.

**-SHIELD COMPROMISED-**

        Steve thought carefully, knowing that he needed to be careful with his words. “Who else knows about your wife?” he asked, knowing that he needed to get two messages across while sounding like the wasn't asking anything else.

        Fury leaned forward, typing something quickly out once again, before beginning to get to his feet. “Just... my friends,” he said, showing the next message to them.

**-ONLY US-**

        Steve looked at Fury questionably, really confused now. “Is that what we are?” Steve asked, interested for an answer, because he never knew where he stood with Fury. Either did Ashlynn.

        Fury stood in front of the window, looking at the both of them. “That's up to you,” he said, before Fury could get another word out, Ashlynn caught sight of something outside the window, and the look of realization appeared on her face too late, three holes appearing from the wall, as Steve already had Ashlynn behind him, but that didn't stop the sight of what she saw. Three bullets went right into Fury, Ashlynn threw herself out of the way of Steve, as he grabbed Fury, pulling him away from the window, Ashlynn moved closer to the window, know that she was going to be in a safer place rather then further back.

Ashlynn still had her sights on the shooter, honestly not caring what Steve and Fury were doing right now. She was beginning to think about what was needed to be done. She looked to Steve, just realizing now that Sharon arrived, and obviously very shocked as the rest of them. Without much of a thought left, Ashlynn looked back to the shooter on the roof, before getting to her feet and taking a few steps back and rushing out at the window towards the building across from them. She barely heard Steve before she jumped, breaking their window. She flew through the air, getting ready for impact, and breaking the window of the other building as well. Landing perfectly, she took off, knocking the door down, and continued to run.

She looked up, seeing the shooter, noticing he had a metal arm. She continued to run, hoping that there was a window at the end of the hall, because she knew that there was going to be another building and that man didn't seem like the type of guy who would have a helicopter waiting for him. Ashlynn could hear stuff going on behind her, but she knew it was probably Steve following after the both of them, but that didn't bother her, she was probably going to never hear the end of it.

Ashlynn saw a window at last, and saw the man jump down. She sped up, jumping out the window, landing and going into a roll before pushing off to give her a bit more speed, she was about to grab the man, before he grabbed her first, stopping them both. She stood there, staring into blue eyes, and she felt her heart stop Ashlynn was curtain that she's seen the color before. Everything kind of just went silent, and then she was thrown to the side with surprising strength before she witness this very man, catch Steve's shield, and only have it thrown back, causing Steve to slide back with it. She could only lay there, feeling just everything drain from her, and she kind of became a zombie after that.

>\------------------<

Ashlynn sat upon the wall. She doesn't remember much after staring into the shooter's eyes like she did. She doesn't remember much of getting to the hospital either. Ashlynn was a little banged up from getting thrown like she did, but it didn't bother her. She was staring at her hands, remembering the way his human and clamped down on her shoulder, stopping her, almost making her face plant, luckily she grabbed onto his jacket. Those eyes of his haunted her. She was positive that she's seen them somewhere before, but for the life of her, she couldn't remember.

        “Hey, you seemed really out of it,”

        The voice shocked Ashlynn from where every she was previously within her mind to see Rumlow there with the rest of STRIKE. She looked around, searching for Steve, only to see him with Natasha, making her look back to Rumlow. “Sorry, just all of this kind of shocked me,” she said, taking a deep breath.

        Rumlow watched closely, obviously surprised by the views. “Something actually took you off guard?” He asked, stepping in closer, resting a hand upon Ashlynn's cheek to make her look at him. “Did you and Steve have a fight after the mission today or something?”

        Ashlynn shook her head, backing away from Rumlow, a little but uncomfortable at the fact that he touched her like that even. “Nope, maybe I'm just in serious need of a vacation,”

Rumlow laughed, causing Ashlynn to laugh a bit as well. Maybe she was losing her edge due to stress of many things. And there was a rather long list for Ashlynn, which she wasn't even going to get into right now because she can't even make sense of half of it at the currently moment. Steve came over, leading to the STRIKE team to escort the two of them back to base for the time being until they were needed to talk Alexander Pierce.

Steve didn't say much on the ride there, or while they stayed in one of the spared housing blocks they had for agents who needed to be there pretty much around the clock. The two of them sat quietly until breakfast rolled around, making Ashlynn get up. She asked Steve if he was hungry, but only got the shake of his head, before she left on her own, joining Rumlow for breakfast.

        “Good morning to you, Mrs. Rogers,” Rumlow joked, making room for her next to him.

        Ashlynn took the seat, setting her tray down before beginning to fool around with her food a bit, as she laughed. “Nah, you got me confused with my Grandmother Peggy,” she said, taking a bit of her eggs as she stared at her plate.

        Rumlow took a sip of his coffee before leaning against the table, interested in what was going on now. “What is up? I know as far that Fury kicked the bucket early this morning, did something else happen that I should know about?” he asked, watching Ashlynn eat her food.

        Ashlynn paused, looking to Rumlow, before sighing and dropping her fork. “I don't know, I honestly don't,” Ashlynn said, looking to Rumlow, a confused look upon her face, thinking herself too hard once again. “I came face to face with the shooter and I just froze and stared. His eyes... I've seen them before. I know I have. But I can't think of where, and I swear it's staring me in the face laughing at me,”

        Rumlow nodded his head, surprised that this was bugging her so much. “So, you're saying that you've seen the guy around?” he asked, wanting more information from her.

        “I want to think I do, for all I know, I've could have seen the eyes on a commercial or something,” she said, going back to eating her food, stressing herself over this even more now then she was before.

Rumlow went silent after that, knowing that it was probably be for the best of not talk about this anymore then need be. Ashlynn continued sitting there, even after Rumlow left, she just stayed there before getting up at last and going to find out if she was allowed to leave the base for the time being to get some fast food and come right back. When she got the clear from a higher up officer, she left the building before the sound of glass breath got her attention. She looked up, seeing Steve fall from the elevator, and down into the building, and sounds were suddenly going off.

Ashlynn took off running, thinking of all the possible places that she could even go, and she could only think of the hospital for some reason. She continued running, getting away from SHIELD as fast as possible, not wanting to draw attention to herself. Soon enough, she found a clothing store, going inside before changing her entire outfit to get away from anyone.

Now, she just had to find Steve, and hope he didn't get caught.

>\----------------<

Ashlynn managed to get back to hospital, and surprisingly found Natasha and Steve walking from it, getting taken to the mall with them. The run down she was given was, Fury had given Steve a flash-drive, nobody knew what it had on it, so they were going to need a computer to see, but there was a risk of that, since the flash-drive has a level six homing program,they were only going to be given about nine minutes after they plugged in. The other bit of important information they were given was about the shooter, the Winter Soldier as many called him. He was good at what he does, and it seemed like he was mainly a ghost story... At least that's what everyone thinks is the case.

        At the current moment, Ashlynn was holding the flash-drive, staring at the computer before her. She took a deep breath, plugging the flash-drive in before beginning to work her magic. Typing away, she tried to think of everything. “Okay, Fury was onto something serious here,” she said, trying to stop whatever the flash-drive was doing. “Someone is trying to hide something, this has an AI that keep's rewriting itself to counter my commands.”

        Steve looked at Ashlynn, needing something a little more then that obviously. “Can you override it?” Steve asked, kind of sound a bit upset right now, which Ashlynn couldn't blame him.

        “I would be able to if I had more time, and didn't have a shitty computer to work on,” Ashlynn said, before going for something else. “I could probably rewrite the whole AI in maybe twenty minutes if we were back at the Tower, but since that isn't the case, we're going to have to track this malware, because if we can't read any of this, we might as well get it from where it came from,”

        Ashlynn was typing away, and almost had heart-attack when the Apple Employee arrived. “Can I help you guys with anything?” he asked, sounding as kind as possible.

        Ashlynn was about to say something, before Natasha shoved herself in, wrapping herself around Steve, and sounding so gross, but seemed to have lite a fire within Ashlynn. “Oh, no. My fiance and our wedding planning was just helping me with some honeymoon destinations.”

        Steve looked a little surprised but went along with it. “Right! We're getting married.”

        The Apple Employee seemed pretty happy for the two of them, as Ashlynn was fuming from before the two. “Congratulations!” He cheered, smiling warmly at them. “Where do you guys thinking about going?”

        Ashlynn looked at the location that she had so far, before smirking to herself. “New Jersey,” she threw in, not bothering to look up, but making it rather obvious within her tone that she wasn't too pleased with what was currently going on.

The Apple Employee finally left them alone, letting Natasha and Steve fall over Ashlynn's shoulder's once again, to see where they were given as the location, making both Ashlynn's and Steve's eyes widen at the sight of it. Natasha looked at the two of them, clearly clueless about what was going on.

        “Do you both know this place?” Natasha asked, leaning in a little closer to them.

        “I used to, let's go,” Steve said, grabbing the flash-drive and taking Ashlynn's arm and dragging her out with Natasha following close after her.

The three of them left the story, Steve was already pointing out all the STRIKE agents that were here, and Ashlynn was looking around for any escape routes if things went sour. Suddenly a hospital mask was shoved into her hand, and she looked to Natasha, seeing Steve have his arm around Natasha, making Ashlynn slip the mask on before she was noticed. She wanted to say something, pretty much anything she could, but she couldn't.

They got onto the escalator, Ashlynn behind Natasha and Steve, when it should really be Natasha behind the couple. Ashlynn saw Rumlow heading towards them and was about to say something to Steve before she saw Natasha and Steve kissing right before her eyes, and that was her tipping point. Once past Rumlow, she shoved herself between the two, Steve racing after her, he knew that there was a huge problem now, and it was to a point that Steve might not be able to fix with just a few words, but he was going to try and assure Ashlynn that none of that meant anything.

Steve just hoped that Natasha wasn't trying to play on Ashlynn's nerves right now.


	11. Chapter Eleven- Maybe It's Time

All three of them sat in a blue, Ford F-150 on their way up to New Jersey. It had been a really silent ride. With Natasha sitting in the passenger seat with Steve in the driver's seat. Ashlynn sat in the back behind Steve's seat, not sitting properly either, but she really didn't care. She stared outside the window across from here, not wanting to punch someone in the face with the full force of her first. Natasha was the one who decided it was time to break the silence within the cab of the truck.

        “Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?” the Russian Assassin asked, looking to the driver.

        “Nazi Germany,” Steve asked, his voice thick, obviously something was bothering him. “And we're borrowing, take your feet off the dash,”

Natasha took her feet from the dash, and silence fell over them all once again. Ashlynn was moving her knee up and Steve reached back and took a hold of it. Ashlynn looked into the rear view mirror, making eye contact with Steve, who smiled softly at her. Ashlynn couldn't hold back the smile that came naturally to her lips, she really couldn't stay mad at Steve. He wasn't at fault, and Natasha probably did the right thing with the whole mall thing. Rumlow probably would have realized that it was Steve and Ashlynn if it was the two of them kissing.

        “We're here,” Natasha let them know, making Ashlynn through the front window to the old military base.

Steve brought the truck to a stop, and all three of them climbed out, looking at the area. Ashlynn was ahead of them, and she was replaying the photos of what her Grandmother Peggy showed her. This was pretty much the same, but old, and with plants all over the place. Other then all of that, it was pretty much exactly the same. Steve had came up next to Ashlynn taking a hold of her hand. Probably really shocked that of it hasn't changed either, and many memories must had been coming back to him.

Natasha was behind them, trying to see where the files came from. They continued to walk, Ashlynn was imagining everything how it was before now. She could see a little wimpy Steve rushing around, falling behind everyone else. She's seen the videos so many times. Ashlynn looked to the Steve beside of her, the both of them stopped, and she realized that he was staring at a flag pole. Ashlynn looked to the same flag pole, and laughed softly, catching Steve's attention.

        “What's got you laughing?” Steve asked, happy to see her laughing again, and cheering up.

        Ashlynn looked up to Steve, smiling widely. “Peggy told me about how you pulled the rode from the bottom, out-smarting everyone, as well as getting a ride back in the car,” She said, laughing softly once again, imagining that very moment. “Honestly, I'm not surprised, I would have probably done the same,”

        Steve laughed as well, about to go in for a kiss when Natasha's voice broke through. “This is a dead end,” she said, shoving her phone into her pocket, clearly annoyed. “Zero heat signature, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off.”

        Ashlynn was about to say something before looking behind Natasha and pulling herself away from Steve and started walking. Natasha and Steve followed after her, confused, but Steve caught on rather quickly. “Storing ammunition had to be five hundred yards from the barracks, it's army regulations, even to this day,” Ashlynn said, looking to the door, and looking back to the other two. “This building isn't in the right place,”

Steve came over, busting the lock open with his shield, opening the door to let them in. Ashlynn went in first, curious as to what they were going to find down. When they reached the bottom of the steps, lights came on, and the SHIELD logo was on the other wall. Natasha went ahead to get a better look at everything.

        “It's SHIELD,” she said, kind of off put by it all.

        “Most likely where it began,” Steve added, looking around as well.

        Ashlynn followed behind them, rolling her eyes. “Obviously it's where it began, they couldn't have really started it anywhere else,” she said, slipping herself next to Steve, and taking a hold of his hand.

The three of them continued to walk, going deeper into the building, only to see pictures of the founding members. Natasha noticed Tony's father right away, as for Steve... His eyes were on Peggy. Ashlynn stood there, starting at the Peggy's photo as well. Deep down, Ashlynn always knew that she had a lot to live up to. And seeing this photo, really proved that she was nowhere close to her Great Grandmother's greatness. No where close. Steve let go of Ashlynn's hands, walking away from it, obviously bringing back memories that's he's been trying to forget.

Natasha followed after Steve, leaving Ashlynn to stare a little more before following after them. Coming to an open bookshelf, seeing that there was an elevator that Natasha was pressing the code in for. Seeing the doors open up, the three of them went inside and Ashlynn was the only the push the down button. They stood there for a couple of seconds, before they stopped, the doors opening up to a dark room. Steve was the first one to step out, followed by Ashlynn and Natasha. They came to a curtain point within the room where lights came on and they saw some really old computer stuff. The further they walked in, the more that it was finding it hard to believe that this was actually happening.

        Natasha snickered, finding this ridiculous. “This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient,” she said, looking around before her eyes fell upon something.

Ashlynn came in close, noticing the small flash drive port as well. Pulling out the flash-drive that had been tossed at her when they first entered the gate of the military base, Ashlynn plugged it in, causing the computer to come to life. Reading upon the screen: Initiate system?, going to the keyboard, Ashlynn typed in 'yes', getting the computer to cranked up another thing appeared upon the screen, making Ashlynn smile.

        “'Would you like to play a game?' Have you seen that movie yet, Steve?” Ashlynn asked, looking over her shoulder to Steve, who was looking very serious, but couldn't help but smile a bit when Ashlynn asked about it.

        “Yeah, I saw it,” He confirmed, before a voice came from the computer.

        “Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984. Carter, Ashlynn Maxine. Born, 1992.” A heavy accent said, as the camera on the top of the computer closed in on them, more like scanning them in some strange way.

        Natasha stepped closer to get a better look. “It's some kind of a recording,” she said, obviously a bit put off by the entire thing like the rest of them.

        “Fraulein, I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am not a recording,” the computer said, before showing a photo of Dr. Arnim Zola.

        Steve took a step forward, wrapping an arm around Ashlynn, rather shocked that this man was alive and knew about Ashlynn. In a way, it sparked the need once again to protect Ashlynn. “Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull... He's been dead for years,” Steve said, shielding Ashlynn behind him.

        “First correction, I am Swiss,” the computer doctor said, clearly annoyed that he was mistaken for being German. “Second, look around you, I have never been more alive. In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body... Yet my mind, however, that was worth saving on two hundred thousand feet of data banks... You are standing in my brain,”

        Steve's grip on Ashlynn's arm tightened, obviously feeling threatened by this. “How did you get here?” He questioned, wanting some kind of answer.

        “I was invited,” Zola said, almost making Steve lash out if it hadn't been for Ashlynn.

        “After World War II, SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic values, it was called Operation Paperclip,” Ashlynn voiced, looking to the computer screen, at Zola's face.

        “They thought I could help their cause... I also helped my own,” Zola said, sounding like he knew what he was doing.

        “HYDRA died with the Red Skull,” Steve stated, knowing that he ended the Red Skull's life right before he had gone under.

        “Cut off one head, two more shall take it's place,” Zola said simply, making Steve sound like he was some kind of idiot.

        Steve leaned forward, like he was trying to challenge Zola. “Prove it.”

        “Accessing archive.” Zola said simply before other things began to pop up upon the other screens, taking everyone back by the sudden amounts of information that was being shown to them. “HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with it's own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom away, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender it's freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For seventy years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed.”

        “That's impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you,” Natasha said, clearly having a hard time taking this all in. Ashlynn was having a hard time with it as well.

        “Accidents will happen,” Zola said, showing Howard and Maria Stark's accident, and showing exactly how it was caused. Followed closely by Nick Fury. “HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice it's freedom to gain it's security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life; a zero sum,”

        Steve suddenly left Ashlynn's side, rushing up to the screen, and smashing it with his fist. Ashlynn grabbed onto Steve, to stop him from doing any more damage. Not wanting him to get hurt or for them to lose anything. “As I was saying...” Zola said, his face appearing on another screen. “What's on this drive? Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm,”

        “What kind of algorithm? What does it do?” Natasha demanded, wanting answers as much as the rest of them.

        “The answer to your question is fascinating,” Zola said, Ashlynn caught the edge in his voice, and it caused her to tense up. “Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it,” The sound of the door closing behind them clicks in. Steve tries to stop by throwing his shield to the door, but was too late, causing it to bounce back to him. “Admit it, it's better this way. We're, both of us... out of time,”

Ashlynn ripped the drive from the port. Steve threw a small opening in the ground aside, Natasha jumped down first. Ashlynn sprinted across the area, Steve managed to grab her hand, throwing her down on top of Natasha right has an explosion happened. Jumped down, using his shield to cover all three of them. Ashlynn doesn't remember much really. Just the sound of rock falling on them. It felt like hours before it finally stopped. Steve began to push against his shield to lift the rock. Ashlynn reached up, pushing as well, using what little strength she had left. Getting the rock off of them. Steve climbing out first, helping Ashlynn out, followed by Natasha. The three of them heard people coming in, and they ran off in the opposite direction, not risking being caught already by Rumlow and STRIKE.

>\----------------<

They arrive at the front door of someone's house, Steve didn't tell them who yet. But Ashlynn trusted Steve to take them somewhere safe. She wanted to call Tony so badly, but he probably have heard what was currently happening and was trying every way to Sunday to find her and to know if she was okay. Someone finally came to the door, and when Ashlynn saw him, she knew exactly who he was. This was Sam Wilson, Steve's running partner and a soldier as well.

        “Hey, man,” Sam greeted, looking the three of them over.

        “I'm sorry about this,” Steve apologized, obviously not happy with dragging someone else into this mess. “We need a place to lay low,”

        “Everyone we know is trying to kill us,” Natasha added, clearly not happy to admit that either.

        Ashlynn stood there, and Sam looked at her, knowing who she was as well. Actually, pretty much everyone knew who she was. “Not everyone,” Sam said, letting them inside the house.

Sam showed them all to the guessed bedroom, Steve let Natasha shower first, which lead Sam to lead Ashlynn away from the two to let her shower in his bathroom. Ashlynn stood by the door of the bathroom as Sam was getting it ready for her, noticing that he was really displaced by whatever happened previously. He looked over his shoulder before standing up to lean against the counter that was near Ashlynn to talk to her.

        “You seem pretty beaten up,” Sam commented, smiling warmly at her.

        Ashlynn looked to Sam, laughing softly. “Explosions tend to do that to a person,” She said, brushing back a bit of her hair from her face, knowing it was complete mess of dirt. “Thanks for letting us in, even with all the danger,”

        Sam laughed, smiling warmly at her, knowing she needed the comfort. “Least I can do, maybe I can even be of more help,” he said, pushing off the counter to move past her. “You get cleaned up, and meet me out in the kitchen, I could use the helping cooking,”

Before Sam had left the room, he tossed Ashlynn a black t-shirt, and smiled to her before leaving the room to give her some privacy. Stepping more into the bathroom, Ashlynn stripped herself of her clothes, throwing her shirt in the garbage, not realizing how torn it had gotten during all of this, and the fact that they had to run through bushes of forest before getting anywhere close to where they needed to be. The shower was a heavenly thing. She stood there for a bit, washing off the dirt and stuff from her hair before she stood there once again.

Ashlynn thought hard about this, and she knew that maybe, maybe things were too soon, especially for Steve. The two of them started a relationship, but deep down, maybe Ashlynn wore the Peggy mask within Steve's eyes. Maybe she really was the back up Peggy. She never really knew. She was always so scared to bring it up. But Steve did say countless times that he never saw her as Peggy. Maybe for the feelings he has for Peggy are still there, and they might have just carried over to Ashlynn. This could all be a false thing, and Ashlynn was afraid now... She didn't want to get attached. Shaking her head, Ashlynn got out of the shower, grabbing the towels that Sam left for her, and dried herself off, and got dressed again to go down to the kitchen.

Seeing no Steve or Natasha there, Ashlynn looked to Sam who looked at her once she walked in. She smiled sheepishly before sliding into the kitchen, helping with the eggs. The two of them had became silent, as they both did their work before Sam was the one speaking up.

        “You two don't seem to be acting like a couple,” Sam mentioned, his voice low so Steve wouldn't. “It's none of my business but you guys were a pretty big deal awhile ago,”

        Ashlynn looked to Sam as she was plating the eggs, and sighed. “Honestly, it's too good to be true...” She said, finishing with the plating before going to the sink to wash the pan for Sam. “I'm pretty sure I'm back up but Steve just doesn't realize it...”

        Sam came over to Ashlynn, slipping up next to her, and smiling warmly. “And you're trying to deny that it's the case but it's obvious now to you that you don't wish to continue because you don't want to go through the pain,” he said, knowing exactly what was up, and it was really refreshing to Ashlynn.

        Ashlynn looked to Sam, nodding her head. “That is exactly it.” she said, resting the pan into the drying rack to look at Sam. “I do care about him though, maybe I got confused at the time as well. He has such an interesting life. I'm the God-Daughter to Tony Stark, and my only friend is my nerdy friend; Peter Parker... Who is probably freaking out about me not getting a hold of him...”

        “Planning to break things off with him?” He asked, moving over to the plates and place them onto the table.

        “...Probably after all of this...” Ashlynn admitted, and then rubbed the back of her neck. “And that means I have to figure out how to tell him... And moving everything from the apartment...”

        Sam came over, patting her back, letting his hand slip to her shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze. “If you need anything, just come find me and I'll help the best I can,” He said, going off to get the other two.

Ashlynn stood there, looking at the plates on the table, smiling a bit. Ever since joining the Avengers, and dealing with so much already, it was nice to have another friend. Maybe once everything was settled, Ashlynn would ask Sam if she could stay here while she packed up her things at the apartment before heading back to New York. Tony wouldn't mind, probably be supportive for whatever she needed him for. She would spend most of her days with Peter doing anything they wanted. Sitting back at his house, going t the movies. It was going to be good to go back to regular old life, that Ashlynn really missed after so long.

Sam walked in, taking two plates off the table, handing one to Ashlynn. Natasha and Steve walked in as well, both taking a seat at the table, knowing that it was now time to get down to the dirty business of all of this.

        “So, the first question is: who in SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike?” Natasha asked, taking a bite into her toast.

        had taken a sip of his coffee before relaxing back into his chair. “Pierce.” Steve answered simply.

        Ashlynn finished her bite of egg that Sam and her made, and looking at the rest of them. “Who is at the top of the most secure building in the world,” Ashlynn reminded them.

        “But he's not working alone,” Steve pointed out, starting to eat his food during all of this. “Zola's algorithm was on the Lemurian Star,”

        “Meaning, Jasper Sitwell,” Ashlynn clarified.

        “Okay, real question: how do the three most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?” Natasha asked, biting into more of her toast, pretty much finishing it off.

        Sam came back into the room, honestly, Ashlynn doesn't remember him even leaving, but remembered that Sam was a soldier like most of them as well, so he was pretty good with blending in and just being quiet. “The answer is: you don't.” Sam said, dropping a folder on the table between Natasha and Steve.

        Steve looked at the folder, before Ashlynn went over and actually opened it to get a good look at it. “What is this?” Steve asked, clearly wondering what this was all about.

        Sam smiled, looking pretty happy with himself. “Call it a resume,” he said, knowing exactly what he was doing.

        Natasha taken a photo from the folder, looking at it, before getting a rather surprised look upon her face. “Is this Bakahmala?” she asked, looking to Sam, then to Steve. “You didn't tell me he was a para-rescue,”

        Steve looked at one of the photos, seeing Sam with someone. “Is that Riley?” he asked, looking to Sam, clearly curious once again.

        “Yeah,” Sam replied, giving off a sad smile.

        Natasha looked to Sam again, a smile on her face. “I heard they couldn't bring in the choppers because of the RPGs,” Natasha said, clearly impressed. “What did you use, a stealth chute?”

        “Nope, these,” Sam said, bringing a photo out of a really cool outfit.

        Steve looked to Sam, clearly shocked. “I thought you said you're a pilot?”

        “I never said a pilot,” Sam reassured, his smile growing even more.

        “I can't ask you to do this, Sam,” Steve said, relaxing back into the his chair, looking at his friend. “You got out for a good reason,”

        Sam shrugged, clearly not caring about that anymore. “Dude, Captain America needs my help, there's no better reason to get back in,” he said, clearly happy that he was getting back into all of this.

        looked back down to the photo and file, before looking back to Sam, obviously giving in now. “Where can we get our hands on one of these?” he asked, needed to know what they have to do.

        Sam thought about it, smirking a bit. “Last one is in Fort Meade, behind three guarded gates, and twelve-inch steel walls,” he said, pretty sure he was remembering that correctly.

        Steve shrugged, Natasha smiled, and Ashlynn smirked. “That shouldn't be a problem for us,” Steve said, causing Sam to laugh.

        “I would hope not, I mean, you got a super spy, and a Stark, I don't see why that wouldn't be a problem,” Sam said, patting Ashlynn's shoulder, making the girl laugh.


	12. Chapter Twelve- Wipe Clean

Shoving Sitwell out a door onto a roof had to be the most satisfying thing in the world. Steve, Natasha and Ashlynn kept advancing on Sitwell until he was at the edge, and almost fell backwards. Steve caught him, and this made Sitwell smirk of course. Oh, if the man only knew what he was getting himself into if he continued being lippy. Everything really kicked into the gear when Natasha kicked him off the edge.

        “Let's hope that we didn't just give him a heart attack,” Ashlynn said, looking over the edge, and back to Steve and Natasha, smiling as she did so.

        “Yeah, maybe we might have planned that a bit risky,” Natasha agreed, before Sam came back up, throwing Sitwell back onto the roof with the four of us now.

        “Zola's algorithm is a program...” Sitwell began spilling, taking deep breathes of air as the four of them surrounded him, looking down at him for the answers. “For choosing Insight's targets!”

        “What targets?” Steve asked, pressing Sitwell for more answers.

        “You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa city. Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, Natasha, hell, even this guy, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA.” Sitwell said, looking up at them, smirking a bit. “Now, or in the future,”

        “The Future? Steve questioned, wanting more answers. “How could it know?”

        Sitwell laughed, eyeing Steve closely. “How could it now?” Sitwell asked, smirking a bit, looking a bit on the crazy side now. “The 21st Century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it.” Getting confused looks from the people that were around him, Sitwell continued. “Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e-mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores. Zola's algorithm evaluates peoples' past to predict their future.”

        Steve moved in closer to Sitwell. “Then what?”

        Sitwell seemed like he was going to say more, but realization flashed onto his face in seconds. “Oh, my god... Pierce is gonna kill me...” Sitwell mumbled to himself, looking a bit on the sick side.

        “What then!” Steve yelled, wanting answers now, rather then Sitwell mumbling to himself,

        “Then Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list,” Sitwell said, looking to them, still looking rather sick. “A few millions at a time.”

With not much else coming from Sitwell, Steve grabbed the man, before carrying him back down the stairs. Soon enough, they were all out of the building and back into the car. Natasha, Sitwell and Ashlynn were in the back seat, while Sam was driving and Steve sat in the passenger seat. The four of them were looking slightly panicked due to the fact that the Helicarriers were going to be launching soon.

        “HYDRA doesn't like leaks,” Sitwell said, as they were on their way to the Triskelion.

        Sam looked into the rear view mirror at Sitwell, clearly wanting the man to shut up. “So why don't you try sticking a cork in it then,” he said, clearly wanted this man to not speak unless it was something useful.

        “Insight's launching in sixteen hours, we're cutting it a bit close there” Natasha said, looking down at her phone, knowing that they really had to quickly plan this all out if they wanted anything to be done.

        “I know,” Steve said, looking into the backseat at them. “We'll use Sitwell to bypass the DNA scans and access the Helicarriers directly,”

        Sitwell began shaking his head, completely terrified right now with Steve's words. “What?! Are you crazy? That is a terrible, terrible idea,” Sitwell said, completely rambling in a panic now.

Ashlynn looked to Sitwell about to say something before something landed on the roof, breaking the window and pulling Sitwell out. Ashlynn could hear Sitwell's screams for seconds before finally being killed by oncoming traffic. Shooting suddenly began, as Natasha climbing into Steve's lap, making sure the man didn't get shot into the head, as Ashlynn did the same thing. Steve pulled on the emergency break. Making them stop, and throw the Winter Soldier off the car, and to land in front of them. They all sat there staring at the man without even realizing a hummer coming up behind them, and smashing them into the back, pushing them along. Once closer to the Winter Soldier, the man jumped onto the roof.

Sam pushing against the break, steering the car the best he could before the Winter Soldier broke through the window, tearing the steering wheel away, leaving them pretty much without any real way to get away. Once the car began to start losing any kind of control, Sam had a tight grip upon Ashlynn, to keep her close to him, as well as throw her out the door if worst come to worst. Steve grabbed onto Sam's arm, breaking the car door, all of them feel out, sliding a few feet. Piled on a car door, until slowed down enough, Ashlynn let go of Sam, to tumble for a while, followed closely by Sam.

Ashlynn got to her feet, just in time to see the Winter Soldier with a grenade launcher aimed right at Steve. Ashlynn tried rushing up to him, to shove him out of the way, but Sam grabbed her, stopping her, making her watch the grenade hit the shield and send Steve flying off the over pass on the explosion.

        “STEVE!” Ashlynn cried out, breaking free from Sam, and looking over the over pass to see if she could find Steve, but only found a mess below.

Bullets began to fly pass her head, as Sam pulled her away, and shoved her towards Natasha. “Get her out of here, she's not safe here!” Sam ordered, as Natasha grabbed Ashlynn, throwing her pretty much over to the other side of the over pass.

The two females ran, dodging bullets from and another grenade. Natasha kept shooting when she had the chance, yet when there wasn't much time to dodge the next grenade, Ashlynn shoved Natasha off the over pass, as she threw herself to the ground, and rolled out of the way of the falling car that got air born this time. She got to her feet once again, before rushing at the Winter Soldier, shoving him out of the way, before jumping down from the over pass to slip underneath, just in time to meet up with Natasha. Trading places, Natasha began shooting for a second, before the woman grabbed at Ashlynn, moving them both from that spot before shoot at the man once again. It was Ashlynn's turn this time to grab Natasha, making a run for it down the streets.

Splitting up, Natasha went a different way as Ashlynn joined in with the crowd to run away. This was all that she could do. If HYDRA had her, they could pretty much get Tony to do whatever they needed him to do. And Ashlynn wasn't going to let that happen. She was going to protect the world no matter what it costed her. Even if it meant her life. She managed to distance herself from everything, giving herself time to hide. She stood there, watching everything go down. Her eyes were searching for some kind of way to make some kind of move. When Steve came rushing in, that's when Ashlynn rushed out as well. Rushing towards the Winter Soldier, she body checked him again, getting some more space between him and the two of them. Natasha was shot, and currently bleeding off somewhere, hopefully managing to move now.

The Winter Soldier's metal arm was his strong point, and it was difficult to move around it. Every time that either Steve or Ashlynn tried to even get near him, he would have them thrown to the ground once again. Steve had gotten thrown again, but Ashlynn managed to grab one of the Soldier's knives at the the same time that he did. The two of them were exchanging in hits, and blocking the other from getting their knife anywhere near them. It continued on like this for awhile, each time, the other would speed up. Finally, Ashlynn managed to hit his arm, but only to be grabbed, knife ripped from her hand to be stabbed into her shoulder.

It was strange though, Ashlynn couldn't register the pain, not even when she pulled the knife out, continuing with throwing punches, giving Steve enough time to get back into the fight when she was thrown across the way by the Winter Soldier. Ashlynn got to her knees, watching the fight continue on, until Steve managed to throw the Winter Soldier her way, his mask coming off.

Ashlynn's eyes widen at the very sight of his face. This... This had to be some sick trick, right? Ashlynn got to her feet, seeing the shocked looked upon Steve's face as well. Ashlynn held onto her shoulder, putting pressure upon the wound, before just letting it go to run towards Bucky. When Ashlynn grabbed his metal arm that held the gun, Sam came from nowhere, and there was no way to stopping either of them. Sam kicked Bucky, and Ashlynn still had a tight hold on him, throwing them both into a car. Ashlynn whined at the pain that was beginning to come through, almost falling if it hadn't been for Bucky grabbing her. She was honestly starting to feel dizzy now, and she didn't know if she was going to be able to stand up for much longer. Sounds were becoming a blur, and then there was a loud explosion.

Black spots were beginning to cloud her vision, but she remembered clearly were the blue eyes that were staring down at her with concern. It felt like she let out a short laugh, but her mind was beginning to grow hazy. Finally her head fell limp as her body was being lifted up. She saw the blue sky, and began to wonder what Tony was about to at the very moment.

>\----------------<

It was pretty quiet when Ashlynn started waking up, and on something somewhat comfy. She opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was blinding lights. She closed her eyes again, groaning, not happy with the sudden light that was in her eyes, but that seemed to help her clue in on the sounds around her. She opened her eyes again, scanning the room, noting that they were in a bank vault.

        “Look who decided to wake up,” a voice came, making Ashlynn look to the right a little bit, causing her to smirk.

        “Nice to see you too, Rumlow,” Ashlynn said, resting her head against the limp mattress that they had her rested against. “I see you guys decided to let me live,”

        “Well, since big, scary over there brought you back here, and demanded you got patched up, we couldn't really let you go,” Rumlow said, walking over to her, and kneeling down next to her with a smile on his face. “He's only seen you twice now, and he suddenly his attached to you... Wonder why that would be.”

        “I tend to have that affect on people, Rumlow,” Ashlynn said, just staring at him, before he eyes went to the I.V in her arms, along with blood. “Did I really lose that much blood?”

        Rumlow looked where she was looking at as well, before chuckling. “I love how you never demanded to be set free, but you'll start asking questions.” He said, fixing up her hair a bit. “Can't wait for Rogers to try and get you back,”

        Ashlynn looked to Rumlow, shaking her head. “Nah, I'll just tell him to run if I have to,” she said, closing her eyes, wanting to burning to get away since her eyes still aren't use to the lights just yet. “I don't need to drag him down too,”

        Rumlow let out a hum, before going silent for a few seconds. “Did you and Rogers' break up or something during all of this?” he asked, probably really curious as to what was going on now between the two.

        “I was going to do it after all of this, but maybe I should ask you to tell him if I don't make it,” Ashlynn said, smiling a bit, opening her eyes once more. She felt tired, but that is what bleeding out does to a person, makes them pretty tired. “I'm realizing a lot since this all started... Maybe Steve and I just weren't meant to be. I'm the only connection he knows about that is a link to Peggy... I haven't told him 'Kate' is my cousin Sharron, who is Peggy's Great-Niece. I feel like he started seeing Peggy as me after awhile. I just kept throwing that thought to the back... But seeing him and Natasha kiss yesterday... It really got me thinking. I mean, we didn't fight over it, and smiling with him is just natural. After so much thought, after moving so quickly. I'm pretty sure that he was scared to lose Peggy again... But I'm not Peggy... And I'll never be her. I can't live up to that. Not only that, I have to live up to Steve as well, since because of whole Government thing, I'm Captain America part two.”

        Rumlow stayed there, listening to her the entire time. He's been doing this ever since meeting her, and he knows of her troubles, and of her pain. “I had a feeling you would be coming to this realization sooner or later, but I'm glad I got to be there for it,” He said, chuckling a little bit, before ruffling her hair. “I kind of wish things weren't the way they were, maybe I would have been able to take you out for a drink and we could have maybe started a relationship.”

Ashlynn smiled, laughing a bit as well. Rumlow might had been right. If things were kind of different, maybe her and Rumlow might have started something. Maybe if Ashlynn met Sam sooner they might have started something as well. If Peter wasn't so hung up on Queen Bee, she might be even dating him right now. She didn't know. If things didn't take off with Steve like they did, maybe Ashlynn wouldn't be in this mess either... But she was glad, she got to see that Bucky was alive, but had no idea who Steve was, yet all that matters was the man was somehow alive.

Rumlow was about to say something else before heavy boots came towards them, Rumlow looked over his shoulder, as Ashlynn looked over. Speaking of the devil. There was Bucky, looking at the two of them, and even shirtless. Rumlow gave a nod, getting up, and leaving the room. Now, it was only Bucky and Ashlynn together. She looked at him, and gave him a weak wave.

        “Sorry, Soldier Boy, kind of out of it at the moment, don't have the strength to fight you right now,” Ashlynn said, watching him carefully, seeing if he did anything. Like end her life. Yet, he did nothing but walk closer to her and take a seat next to her.

        He looked at her, before looking ahead of him again. “Did I know that man back on the street?” he asked, his voice, weak, and obviously confused.

        Ashlynn looked at him, her eyes widening a bit. Was he remembering Steve? Had HYDRA done something to Bucky to wipe his memories or at least repress them? Most likely. “Yeah... He was your best friend.” She said, fixing herself to sit up more. “You knew him since you guys were little. You guys fought a war together... You protected him with everything you had. He thought you died... he managed to stop a war because of you and my Great Grandmother.”

        “What... What is my actual name?” He asked, looking to Ashlynn, making her smile a bit.

        “James Buchanan Barnes.” she told him, letting her head lop onto his shoulder. “My head still feels really fuzzy,”

        “You did lose a lot of blood,” he pointed out, he kind of chuckled, making Ashlynn laugh softly. “I felt the need to keep you safe for some reason.”

        “Probably because you were told I meant a lot to Steve since we are dating...” Ashlynn said, looking up Bucky, shrugging her shoulders. “But it wouldn't be like that for long...”

        Bucky looked down at her, nodding his head, understanding. “I heard you talking to that man about it... is there a past between your Great Grandmother and Steve?” he asked, trying to figure it out himself.

        “Yeah, in a way,” she said, looking at the wall before them. “I'm not surprised that it turned out this way, I was just being really positive about all of this, because it's nice having someone else care for you that certain people can't. I guess that's what relationships are about...”

Bucky nodded his head, before resting his head upon hers. They both just stayed like that. Nobody bothered them. And just having Bucky around, Ashlynn was beginning to really take in the sights around her. In front of them was a strange looking chair, and she was getting really bad feelings from all of it. That had to be the thing that wiped Bucky's brain, she was sure of it. By the design alone, she knew. Shock therapy, smart. Hard to fix too if done correctly. Ashlynn reached up, wrapped her arm around Bucky's and taking his hand into her own.

        “What's wrong?” Bucky asked, looking down at Ashlynn rather surprised that she was holding his metal hand.

        “They're going to put you in that again aren't they?” She asked, her voice getting soft because she didn't want to know the answer.

        “...Yeah,” he said, looking at the chair in front of them.

Ashlynn bit her lip, keeping any sound she had in. She was not going to cry. She was going to have to sit through Bucky getting his brain wiped, him having to go through probably worlds of pain, all because HYDRA needed a weapon. She looked down at Bucky's arm, touching it with her hand with the tubes connected to her.

        “Steve banged this up pretty good,” She said, noticing were the edge of the shield had dug into.

        “Nothing that can't be fixed,” Bucky said, watching her as she continued to look over his arm.

She was amazed by it really. It was something completely different, and highly advance for when it was created. It probably got upgraded over the time. Yet, it still was pretty amazing. Ashlynn looked to Bucky, realizing that he had been looking at her the entire time, watching her look over his arm. She felt her cheek grow warm with flush realizing that she probably should have asked before touching it.

        “It's okay, it's actually kind of nice having someone not scared of it,” Bucky said, smiling, using his actual hand to keep Ashlynn's hand there.

Ashlynn smiled as well. She looked down at their hands, feeling warmth swell up in her chest. Steve was right. Her and Bucky would have probably gotten along back in the day. Back in Brooklyn. Steve was usually never wrong, and it really warmed her up knowing that at least she kind of had a friend while being here. Ashlynn looked up at Bucky about to say something before two men in button up shirts and the STRIKE team walked in. She removed herself from Bucky, as Bucky himself got to his feet. He glanced over his shoulder to her, and she gave him a nod, letting him know that she was going to be okay.

Bucky took a seat on the chair, letting the men start their work. She sat there, her and Bucky just staring at each other the entire time, before the look in his eyes changed. He was remembering something, just by how his eyes were jumping from her eyes, to her lips, to pretty much all around her, trying to focus on something, pretty much anything if he could. Finally, his metal arm bashed the man working on his arm from his chair and across the room. Ashlynn ripped the needles from her arm, sprinting, and grabbing onto Bucky's face, and making him look at her as guns were pointed at them.

        “Calm down, deep breathes...” She whispered, standing her, making him look at her. “I'm here, I'm not going anywhere.”

She didn't know what came over her, but she stayed there, she let Bucky wrap his arms around her waist and pull her closer to him. He rested his head upon her chest, listening to her heartbeat, his eyes closed, finding the pattern in seconds, and counting it. Ashlynn stayed here, cradling Bucky to her pretty much. Her actions were pretty much just instinct taking over, and she just needed to be there. Nobody moved for the longest time, before Rumlow came back, and Pierce's was with him.

        “I heard that the asset brought you in, demanding you got saved,” Pierce said, seeing Ashlynn there, holding Bucky the way she was.

        “I tend to have that way with men,” Ashlynn said, moving herself in a way to shield Bucky more from Pierce's view. “And he has a name...”

        “Move her away from him,” Pierce ordered, making Rumlow walk over, grabbed Ashlynn by her hair and ripped her from Bucky's grip. Bucky had reached out, and was ready to fight back before Pierce stopped him. “I wouldn't do that, it'll only make things worst for her,”

        Bucky froze, looking at Ashlynn in fear, and she started to struggle in Rumlow's grasp, and Rumlow brought his mouth to her ear to whisper into it. “Calm down, or Pierce will do something that might set Bucky off and he'll be dead for sure,” Rumlow told her, causing Ashlynn's movement to stop, and she just stared at Bucky.

        Pierce looked back to Bucky, knowing that she wouldn't be doing anything wrong. “Mission report,” he ordered, and Bucky stayed silent, his face going blank. “Mission report, now.” Pierce waited a few seconds, still getting no response, he hit Bucky and Ashlynn started fighting again, breaking from Rumlow's grasp. She almost had Pierce in her grasp until a stun rod came from her side, causing her to drop to the floor, and Pierce resting his foot upon her throat. “You were close, but not quick enough,”

        “The man on the bridge...” Bucky began, looking down at Ashlynn as she laid there, completely enable to move due to the shock. “Did I know him?”

        “You met him on another assignment, earlier this week,” Pierce confirmed for him, lightly pressing down on Ashlynn's throat with his foot.

        “I knew him,” Bucky said, looking up at Pierce now, the pain clear in his eyes.

        Pierce let his foot off of Ashlynn's neck, grabbing a seat and sitting in front of Bucky, making sure the man's attention was on him, and not her. “The work you have been doing is a gift to mankind,” he said, sounding like he had this already for months. “You shaped this very century, and I just need you to do it one more time. Society is a a tipping point between order and chaos. Tomorrow, early morning, we're gonna give it a slight push, but if you don't do your part, I can't do mine, and HYDRA can't give the world the freedom it deserves.”

        “Oh, fuck off, Pierce,” Ashlynn said, earning her a swift kick to the guy by one of the STRIKE agents that she had worked with for so long. “Ah, you're just killing of millions of people, and trapping the rest, that is exactly why you aren't letting me die either, because I'm the only one who is able to make Tony do your dirty work as well...”

        Bucky looked down at Ashlynn, his eyes widened, before looking to Pierce. Pierce, grabbing a gun from one of the men, and shooting into her injured shoulder, looking down at her with a displeased look. “Prep him...” He ordered, getting up, leaving Ashlynn there on the floor in pain.

        “He's been out of the cryo-freeze for too long,” one of the men working on his arm said, looking between Bucky and Ashlynn.

        “Then start over,” Pierce said, getting up and leaving with Rumlow. Rumlow had looked back, giving a tight smile to Ashlynn, telling her that she should have just listened.

        Ashlynn watched as Bucky got strapped to the chair, who was looking down at Ashlynn the entire time, before the teeth guard was placed in, her looked to one of the men. “Can you please make sure that she'll be okay...” He requested, before taking the mouth guard into his mouth.

The other man came over to Ashlynn, helping her up, and took her back to the mattress they had ready for her, and where she was earlier. Sitting her back down, the man brought out a medical kit and began to cut open her shirt to get at the wound. A shirt was kicked over to them, and Ashlynn looked up to see Bucky giving her a smile, kind of like one people do with an orange peel, but it was a blue mouth guard instead. Smiling softly, Ashlynn felt her eyes burn, and she started blinking trying to get rid of the tears, but they started to fall from her face. The other man got finished getting Bucky ready, before starting the machine up. Once the shocking start, and Bucky started screaming, Ashlynn began to sob, she didn't care if she was in front of a lot of people right now, she just couldn't stop it.

Even after she was patched up, just sat there, in Bucky's shirt, watching this all happen until the end. What came out of that chair wasn't Bucky anymore... Yet she could still tell he was there. Especially when those words left his mouth.

        “ ** _She stays with me._** ”


	13. Chapter Thirteen- Goodbye

Bucky had a tight hand around her arm as they brought into SHIELD. Ashlynn wore sunglasses, and a hat to hide what she looked like. Not wanting to risk people knowing it was her, because they knew something would be wrong, seriously wrong. She didn't even say anything as she was taken to one of the Helicarriers and she looked behind her, feeling a bit nervous. She hoped that Steve and the others got here in time.

The two of them where down below, out of sight, out of mind really. Everyone on these Helicarriers were HYDRA, Pierce confirmed that on the way here. She was leaning against one of the railings, watching Bucky walk around, yet as well keep a close eye on her as well. Ashlynn hadn't said anything to Bucky after what they did to him, know sure what extent what he remembered of her. From what Pierce said, he shouldn't remember a single thing about her. Though, when he said that she stayed with him, she felt a little hopeful that maybe she did hold some special place within his brain that managed to not disappear.

        “Why were you crying when they were shocking me?” Bucky's voice came through the area, as he stood on the other side of where she was.

        “Because, you saved me, and had been nice to me for the entire time since I've been here,” Ashlynn told him truthfully, making him fall silent once again.

        The two of them stood there, either of them looking at each other, not knowing what to say about anything that was currently going on. “...I stabbed you...” Bucky said, recalling yesterday. “...You told me things that I wanted to know... You knew me...”

        Ashlynn looked up to Bucky, smiling softly. “Yeah, because I heard a lot about you from Steve,” she said, pushing herself from the railing, and walking over to him, but he stopped her by holding out his hand. “What's wrong?”

        Bucky looked at her, clearly not sure of what to do. “I don't want to get you hurt again,” he said, obviously recalling that she had gotten shot because she was being a smart-ass towards Pierce.

        Ashlynn moved his hand out of the way, walking towards him the rest of the way, so she stood behind him, shoulder to shoulder. “I don't care, I'm not letting anything happen to you anymore, you've been through enough,” she said, holding his hand into her own.

        “But aren't you-” Bucky began but Ashlynn shook her head to cut him off. She was about to answer him before they were cut off by a voice over the intercom, catching both of their attentions.

        “ _Attention, all SHIELD agents. This is Steve Rogers. You've heard a lot about me over the last few days, some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it's time you know the truth. SHIELD is not what we thought it was, it's been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader. The STRIKE and Insight crew are HYDRA as well. I don't know how many more, but I know they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want: absolute control. They shot Nick Fury and it won't end there. If you launch those Helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way, unless we stop them. I know I'm asking a lot, but the price of freedom is high, it always has been, and it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I;m the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not._ ”

        Bucky looked so torn at that very moment. She knew that the wipe from his brain probably messed his judgment up by a lot. He didn't know what was right or what was wrong anymore. He doesn't even remember HYDRA that clearly. “He's my mission,” He said, looking to Ashlynn, needing some way to stop this. “And I don't want you to get hurt because I have to do my mission.”

        “Bucky, I know you'll do the right thing, I'm not going to stop you,” Ashlynn said, reaching up and pushing back some of his hair. She leaned up, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek. “Just know, I'm here, and I will keep you safe.”

Bucky looked at her, having to catch her when the Helicarrier began to move, showing that they were launching. Ashlynn looked behind her. She could do something, but this wasn't her fight. Not this time. She stood there, waiting. At a curtain time, Bucky seemed to have gotten a call, going away. Ashlynn did the right thing, and followed after him. They got onto the deck, and there was Steve on the other side, Bucky went rushing towards him. Ashlynn reached out to him to stop him, but she was too late. She followed after Bucky. Sam was about to go and grab Steve, before getting thrown back, and almost into Ashlynn.

        “Holy shit! You're alive!” Sam exclaimed, staring up at Ashlynn who was looking down at Sam.

        “Um, why, kind of got save by that guy,” She said, pointing towards Bucky, who was coming towards them. “And I really don't want to fight him...”

Sam whipped out his guns, and started shooting at Bucky, to clear a way to get to Steve, because the two of them currently didn't know that the man still falling or not, or if he died. Bucky dodged them all before finally disappearing. Sam began running, taking off before Bucky latched onto him, ripping a wing from Sam's suit and start falling from the ground. Ashlynn rushed to the edge, watching Sam to continue to fall, but she caught sight of Steve, climbing up. He was okay. Ashlynn turned on her heel, rushing back inside of the Helicarrier, taking the stairs to rush down to the lower levels.

When Ashlynn got down there, Steve was on the other end of the catwalk, she rushed down, her feet carrying her as fast as they would let her before throwing herself at him, and hugging him tightly. Steve held her close to him. Both of them stayed there like that for awhile. Steve probably was freaking out after her body wasn't found, and same with Bucky's, he probably thought she was dead. Not that he could blame him, she thought she kicked the can as well.

        “How did you get out of there?” He asked, looking her over, noticing the oversize shirt she wore. “Is this Bucky's?”

        “Bucky saved me, when he saw you again, it triggered his memories,” she explained, pulling away from Steve to look at him. “He said he needed to protect me, and I think he remembers the friendship between you too. I think he still does, Pierce's had his mind wiped, but because of me, I think I managed to get him to hang onto them somehow, but due to programming, he's still on a mission,”

Steve nodded his head, and kissed the top of Ashlynn's head. That very motion caused Ashlynn to smile. She knew exactly what that meant. She looked up at Steve, nodding her head, before hearing the footsteps behind her. Steve looked over her head, as she looked over her shoulder to Bucky. He was looking at Ashlynn, looking so concern at her. He didn't want her in the way of the fight between himself and Steve. Ashlynn stepped back from Steve, going back to Bucky, and getting behind the man.

        “Please don't make me do this,” Steve said, looking at Bucky with a gaze full of emotion. He didn't want to fight Bucky, he didn't want to harm him either.

        “Don't let her get hurt,” Bucky said, charging at Steve.

Steve threw his shield, of course, Bucky simply stopped it, throwing it back at Steve. Ashlynn kept her distance, backing up when it was needed. She dodged when she needed to, there were even times when either Steve or Bucky grabbed her to move her out of the way because she couldn't do much else. She continued to watch the fight, even when they both fell off the catwalk to down below, she stayed up there, watching them. She couldn't get into this, Bucky didn't want her to get hurt. This fight was between them. This wasn't her fight. That is what she kept telling herself anyways. But watching them hurt each other brought tears in her eyes, and she fell back against the module that held the chips. She put her hand over her mouth, to keep herself quiet.

She wanted them to stop. She had to trust Bucky to do the right thing, she couldn't be guiding him. When the sound of someone's arm breaking, and hearing Bucky cry out, she pushed herself back from the module and looked down at Steve. He was trying to get the chip back. She waited, and watched Steve knock Bucky out before grabbing the chip and starting making his way back up. He was pretty close before the gun shots began. This time Bucky was shooting at Steve to stop him. Ashlynn saw one of Bucky's gun's before grabbing it, and aiming at Bucky. She took a deep breath, mentally apologizing before pulling the trigger, shoot Bucky in his leg. Bucky took aim at her, but froze.

He saw the tears on her face, and the pain in her eyes. After so long with doing what he did, he read people like a book, but never in his life were the emotions that she was expressing very really shown to him. Meant for him. He lowered his gun, just watching her, becoming unsure of what to do once again. Ashlynn dropped the gun, helping Steve up, and helped him walk over to the module. Steve was about to put the chip in when two shots went off. The first once went into the side of Ashlynn's torso, as the second once went into the right side of Steve's back. Steve fell to the ground, as Ashlynn looked to Bucky, who was clearly shaking. The first shot wasn't on purpose, he was truly unsure of what to even do.

Ashlynn grabbed the chip, looking to Bucky one last time, she smiled at him, before turning around and slipping the chip into the slot and programming it into the Helicarrier with ease. Steve looked up at Ashlynn, and she smiled at Steve, taking a deep breath through the pain she was in.

        “Second bullet within the last twelve hours,” she said, laughing a little bit, reaching down and pulling Steve up with her.

        “Get out of here, they're going to take the three Helicarriers down, and I don't think Tony is ready to lose you too,” Steve said, looking at her as she helped Steve walk.

        “Nope, I'm not going anywhere,” She said, just as they Helicarriers started firing on each other.

Steve and Ashlynn tried to walk properly upon the catwalk, but the shaking and both of them being injured, it was difficult. The sound of something falling caught both of their attentions and saw Bucky trapped underneath a support beam. Letting Steve go, Ashlynn jumped down, followed closely by Steve. The both slowly made it over there, getting on either side of the beam, and started lifting it with what they had left. She wasn't going to leave either behind. Once lifted enough, Bucky slid himself from underneath, getting to his feet, as the two of them dropped the beam, and looking at Bucky.

        “You know me,” Steve stated, looking at Bucky deeply.

        Bucky looked at Steve, very confused, and was obviously having a hard time deal with facts and truth due to whatever was going on. “No, I do not!” Bucky yelled, throwing a punch at Steve, sending him back.

        “Bucky, you've known me your whole life,” Steve said, trying to see if he could jog his memory again. Bucky took another hit at Steve, who just wasn't fighting back anymore. “You're name is James Buchanan Barnes.”

        “SHUT UP!” Bucky yelled, taking another punch at Steve.

        Steve stood up, taking his helmet off, looking at Bucky, obvious trying to hold back the tears, but looked so hopeful at the same time. “I'm not going to fight you,” Steve stated, before letting his shield drop. “You're my friend.”

        Bucky lets out a roar, before tackling Steve to the ground, and started punching him in the face. “You're my mission!” Bucky cried out, continuously punching Steve in the face, his fist never letting up. “You're. My. Mission!”

        Steve looked up at Bucky, lip slit, right eye swollen shut, but still never fighting back. “Then finish it,” Steve said, just looking at Bucky. “'Cause I'm with you until the end of the line.”

Those words struck Bucky, causing the man to freeze, lowering his fist. Ashlynn limped over, coming to their side, just as a piece of the Helicarrier came down, breaking through the glass and support there, causing Steve to fall down towards the water, completely unconscious, as Bucky hung there watcher. Ashlynn pushed off with her both of her feet, getting a short running start before jumping in after Steve. She hit the water, wincing a little, before swimming over to Steve and grabbing onto him. This man seriously weighs a lot more then she thought as she attempted to pull Steve from the river.

        Soon enough, it got easier, looking next to her, she saw a very blurry sight of Bucky on the other side, helping her. The two of them brought Steve to shore, and they both stood there, letting Steve lay there between them. Reaching into her pants pockets, she was amazed to see that it was still there. Pulling out her key chain with a single key on it. She held it out to Bucky.

        “You know where he lived, go there, I'll be here soon...” Ashlynn said, looking to Bucky. Bucky looked at the key, before taking it with a nod, and heading off.

Ashlynn stood there, before taking a seat upon the beach. She listened to Steve cough up water, before looking over to see that he was breathing on his own. She couldn't help but smile, knowing that he was going to be okay then. She laid down next to Steve, looking up to the sky.

At least the day was nice. 


	14. Chapter Fourteen- Home By Your Side

Few hours had passed, Steve was to stay in the hospital a few days when he wakes up, meaning perfect timing for Ashlynn to head back to the apartment and start packing. She got there late that night, going in, and saw Bucky sitting on the couch when she got around the corner. She smiled at him before walking over and taking a seat next to him. At least he took a shower and borrowed some of Steve's clothes. The two of them were silent for a moment, before Bucky pulled her into a hug.

“I didn't mean to shoot you,” he said, kissing the top of her head, making her look at him.

“I know, and I don't hate you for it, plus it got taken out easily,” She said, letting her head rest against his shoulder. Both of them were quiet for a few minutes, before Ashlynn spoke up again. “You can stay here for a few days, you're going to have to share the guest room with me because I'm going to be packing and moving my things out,”

“You're going to tell him after he wakes up?” Bucky asked, keeping his arm around her shoulder as they both rest against the couch.

“I think he already knows what's going on, but I know we're going to have talk about it,” Ashlynn said, taking a deep breath in. “Then after that, I'll be moving into an apartment in Brooklyn, and you can come with me... We'll figure out things from there,”

Bucky nodded his head, the two of them stayed there all night, talking about the most pointless things until early in the morning when Ashlynn decided it was time to start cooking and start packing. With her phone out on the counter, playing music, Bucky was sitting on the couch with a book at least for something to read. She would check her phone, getting messages from Sam, telling her what the doctor said, and she was getting really panicked text messages from Tony, but she calmed him down soon enough that she was okay, and that she would call later. Natasha even sent her a text message letting her know what was up. By the time breakfast was ready, Ashlynn and Bucky had Ashlynn laptop pulled out and were looking for places to live in Brooklyn, close to where Bucky and Steve grown up.

They probably got really lucky when the found the same apartment building that Bucky had grown up in had very apartment that Bucky grew up in available for rent. Ashlynn had called the building owner right away, and soon enough had the room the apartment in her name. She texted Pepper around that time as well to let her know that she was going to need Happy to bring her stuff to the apartment, and not to tell Tony about any of it yet. After that was done, Bucky started to carefully help Ashlynn with packing things that could be sent tomorrow morning when they woke up. Ashlynn even cleaned up the house a bit, glad to see that it got fixed after Bucky fired through it about a week ago.

Their day we pretty quiet, and Ashlynn ended up ordering at least four pizzas for the two of them. She turned on the TV, finding something for both of them to watch, only to end up on the Food Network watching Iron Chef America. They sat there, Bucky asked as many questions before they both decided it was time to get some sleep. Both climbing into the guest bedroom, the two of them lay there, and Ashlynn listened to Bucky talk about a memory of him and Steve that he was remembering, and he was actually smiling and laughing until he finally fell asleep. Ashlynn laid there for maybe an hour watching the man sleep, and knew that tonight might was just going to be an easy night before the night terrors began and were the task began.

When Ashlynn awoke the next morning, she was surprised to see Bucky in the kitchen cooking for them. She walked in, seeing him there, cooking up some eggs, and hash browns as well. “I remember Steve mentioning you did enjoy to cook,” She said, sliding up beside him to see how it was all doing.

“I don't know why, but I woke up early this morning, and I found Steve's photo albums, started looking through them,” Bucky said, sounding a lot less robotic then he had been since she met him. “A lot more began coming back to me. Not a lot... And a lot of it is out of order, but it's there.”

“It'll come back, just give it time.” She said, kissing the metal of his shoulder, smiling warmly at Bucky.

Bucky smiled back at her, before going back to deal with the cooking. Ashlynn got the coffee going, before beginning to pack more boxes once again, and started placing things by the door when it was time to bring them in. She knew that she was going to have to talk Bucky into helping, and they were going to need to borrow more of Steve's clothes, but that wouldn't be a big deal, she can always clean. Bucky had plated the food by the time all the boxes were moved, and making Ashlynn realize that she didn't have that much here to begin with.

“I thought you were going to have more stuff,” Bucky commented, looking to the boxes by the door. “I mean, that is all of it right?”

Ashlynn nodded her head, looking to Bucky. “Yeah, it is, I only have my clothes, by I'm going to put some in the suitcase when we head back to New York.” She said, looking to Bucky. “And that means, I'm going to have to be getting a few things for you as well.”

“We'll worry about that later,” He said, pulling her away to take her to the table to eat.

They just started eating when her phone went off, she reached for it next to her, seeing it was a text from Sam. She read it, and saw it was from Sam, letting her know that Steve had woken up but wouldn't be leaving the hospital for another three days at least, and that Steve wanted to talk to her today if it was possible. Bucky had stopped eating as well, seeing how Ashlynn had kept reading the text a few times over.

“Is he awake?” He asked, watching at she placed her phone down, making her look at him. “Are you scared?”

“Yeah, I'm nervous, I never really thought that this was going to happen so soon,” She said, beginning to dig into her food once again. “But, in a way, it's going to be a bit easier to do this due to the kiss on my head the other day,”

Bucky nodded his head, taking a bite of his food as well. “I saw that... It didn't seem like a kiss one would give to someone they love,” he said, before sighing, knowing that the wording was a bit off. “I mean, someone they might want to share the rest of their life with.”

Ashlynn looked at Bucky smiling softly. “I guess you're right,” she said, taking a bite into her pancakes. “And has anyone ever told you that you make killer pancakes,”

Bucky laughed, shaking his head. The two of them ate their breakfast, talking about little things, trying to figure out what to do once Ashlynn got back from the hospital, they were probably going to pack her clothes, and maybe after go out a get things for Bucky for when it was time to leave DC for good and try to start fresh before anything else comes up. When they were done eating, Bucky told Ashlynn to go and get ready to see Steve, and that he got the dishes under control. By the time the dishes were dealt with, and Ashlynn was ready to go, she stood nervously by the door, and looked at Bucky.

“Everything is going to be fine,” He said, walking over and giving her arm a squeeze. “I'll be here when you get back...”

Ashlynn nodded, know sure she's even able to speak at the moment due to the events that are about to happen. At least she was going to have time on the way there to come up with something to tell him, pretty much anything to tell him. She just had to remind herself that Bucky was currently at his apartment, and that she was going to be hiding him away from pretty much everyone, because would would even think that Ashlynn would be hiding a wanted man from everyone?

She decided that taking the bus would be a safe bet right now. Giving her a little bit more time to think things through, as well as give her a chance to being able to speak to anyone, especially Steve. She even had to tell Tony what was even going on once back in New York. She knew she wasn't going to be able to allow him over to the apartment due to Bucky, but going to the Tower would be a safer bet since Bruce was there, and it was meant to be a stress free place to work. Maybe she could take him out for coffee and make it a public announcement that she and Steve broke things off because it all wasn't right and it was just a rush messed? She really didn't know.. She needed to get this done though.

When did she arrive at the hospital was completely unknown to her, especially when she was staring at the elevator door on the main floor, frozen in place. Ashlynn could see the blurry reflection within the mirror. She took a deep breath, pressing the button to call the elevator, and she waited once again. Her hands kept flinching when someone stepped too close to her or even looked in her direction. Her senses had grown ten-fold at this exact moment, and she really didn't like it. Maybe this was exactly how Tony talked about being stressed, you become sensitive to everything once you pass the certain mark. Ashlynn was pretty sure she passed that mark many hours ago when this really began hitting her. She closed her eyes, taking her to a better place. Britain. Grandmother Peggy was there, telling stories, and Sharon was holding Ashlynn in her lap.

The ding awoke Ashlynn, opening her eyes to see the doors opening to reveal guards walking the halls. Stepping out, she began walking down the hall, knowing exactly where they placed him, not too far from the operation room on this floor ironically. She peeked around the corner, seeing Sam there as well, talking to Steve while listening to music in the background. She hid herself once again, and bit her lip as tears came to her eyes. This was for the best. They needed to find happiness without being in the relationship that they are in right now. Taking another deep breath once again, Ashlynn brought her courage back in her, before walking into the room finally, and smiling warmly.

“It's good to see you up so soon,” Ashlynn commented, standing at the foot of the bed, looking at Steve. “Compared to when I dragged you from the water, much better,”

Steve laughed, looking at Ashlynn, wearing the same warm smile that she wore. “Good to know that I still got my looks,” He said, patting the edge of the bed. “Come sit, you look tired.”

Ashlynn walked over to the bed, sitting down right where Steve had patted at. Sam looked between then, getting up without a word and leaving the room, closing the door behind him. He wasn't an idiot, he knew something was going to be happening, he had gotten the feeling awhile ago. Ashlynn stared at her hands, biting her lip, unsure what to even say. The silence hung over them for a few minutes before Steve finally broke it, knowing that it was better to get the pain done at once.

“I know you don't want to do this, because even though this was really rushed, and completely based off a feelings that were forced upon us, we were happy,” Steve began, making Ashlynn look at him, pain flashed upon her face, but she still smiled, because he was right. They were happy, but everything about it felt wrong on many levels. “I honestly will admit that I don't want to do this either, but maybe it's better this way,”

Ashlynn reached over, resting her hand upon Steve's cheek that is still swollen from Bucky's punches upon him. “I know what you mean,” she agreed, rubbing her thumb gently against the room. “I think at one point, when we were trying to understand each other, know each other... Things that we weren't going to let get in the way, got in the way. I let society slip in, and mash us together because we're the two super soldiers that are meant to be, since I'm related to your past lover and it would only be right,”

“And I started to see you as Peggy,” he said, finally admitting to himself that he was seeing Peggy whenever he was with Ashlynn. There were so many things about Ashlynn that was so much like Peggy, there had been times that with the trick of the light, Ashlynn pretty much looked exactly like Peggy, and soon enough, that's all Steve was seeing. “I fought so hard to keep that from happening, but I couldn't stop it, especially when ever I saw Peggy. I'm just as much at fault like you are,”

Both of them went silent once again, both looking away from each other. It was true. Society dominated their lives so much due to media. SHIELD wasn't the greatest help either. And Peggy being alive really threw things into a loop. This was going to shock many, and it was also going to take awhile to even get use to being around each other after being so warm with each other in the beginning. Hopefully having the time, and distance apart would fix everything, so nothing would end up being weird. Taking it slow with working as a team when the time came once again. This was the right choice, because it didn't hurt and nothing was feeling forced anymore.

“I'm going to probably be out of the apartment before you get back,” Ashlynn said, looking to Steve, smiling softly. “I kind of rearranged everything, it's pretty much like I was never there in the first place,”

“Where are you going? The Tower?” He asked, honestly a little worried about Ashlynn not having anywhere to live.

Ashlynn laughed, shaking her head. “God, no.” She said, a natural smile on her face as she spoke to him. “I found a place in Brooklyn, nice place, easy to get to the college from there, though I might be just doing online stuff until things cool down once our break-up goes viral.”

Steve smiled as well, reaching up to hold Ashlynn's hand against his cheek. “Why Brooklyn?” he asked, curious for the answer.

“You're going to be surprised, but,” She said, her smile turning into a grin. “Bucky's apartment, the very one he grew up in, and ended up living in after his apartments moved out was for rent, and I thought I would move in, and once things smooth over, you can come over and share all the lovely memories you have there,”

Steve's eyes had widened at the news, and just kept silent during the entire time Ashlynn told him about it. “That's going to be a good place for you,” He said, chuckling at the thought of going back there to relive memories of his younger self. “I got another question for you,”

“Shoot,” Ashlynn said, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

“You weren't the only one who pulled me from the river were you,” he stated, his face growing serious in seconds. Always so quick to change facial expressions for the right moments. “Bucky did too, didn't he?”

“Yeah,” Ashlynn answered, nodding her head. “After I jumped in, I was pulling you up, you weigh more then you look, and being in water doesn't make things easier- Bucky pretty much showed up out of no where and helped me, I think your words were enough to jump him back,”

“Do you know where he is now?” Steve asked, looking at Ashlynn with a hopeful look.

Ashlynn looked at Steve, biting her lip. She could tell him that she was planning to move in with Bucky once they both got to Brooklyn, that his best friend was currently at his apartment waiting for her to get back... “I can't.” She stated, looking to the floor, guilt raising up inside of her. “I told him that I wouldn't tell you... He doesn't trust himself, and he doesn't want to hurt you anymore. But all I can tell you, he's safe and I got him under control.”

“That's all I needed to know, is that he's safe,” Steve said, closing his eyes to feel the stress getting off of him.

Ashlynn looked at Steve, before leaning over and pressing her lips against his softly. There was a startled sound in the back of Steve's throat, but it was cut short when Steve started to kiss her back, letting his hand go as it rested on the back of her head, to keep her there. The kiss began to deepen, tongues began to clash in a soft manner, as they took their time. When Ashlynn needed air, she broke the kiss, and took a deep breath, looking away shyly from Steve.

“On hell of a good-bye,” Steve said, looking to Ashlynn, knowing what she was thinking. “You gotta get going to help Bucky out don't you?”

Ashlynn nodded her head, getting to her feet. “I just wanted one last kiss,” She said, smiling at him, heading towards the door, and pausing with her hand on the handle. “I'll tell Bucky you say hi,”

Turning the handle, she opened the door, stepping out, looking over her shoulder to Steve one last time with a small wave. She walked from the room, heading to the elevator, which luckily just emptied out with people, giving Ashlynn the perfect chance to slip in and get the door closed. Once from seeing eyes, she broke down, and started crying. It was painless but deep down, it hurt so much.

>\----------------<

She found herself at the Smithsonian.

Ashlynn called Bucky, letting him know that she was going to be a little late coming home because she just needed to get some kind to herself to think things over, with a whole lot of people around, so she didn't do anything stupid. She wondered around the Captain America and the Howling Commandos display. It relaxed her, until she finally sat on a bench in front of the Bucky Barnes glass display that told about his relationship with Steve and how he was the only one to give his life during duty. It was ironic really, seeing this now, and knowing that when she got back, she would be seeing a long haired, puppy version on the very picture before her, and it was a happy kind of irony.

Hearing someone take a seat beside her, Ashlynn glanced over to seeing Bucky there, making her look at him fully. He was looking to the display as well, but he took a hold of her hand, and looking right back at her. She didn't say anything, neither did he. It was just a silent understanding between the both of them. They were going to work together to find themselves. Bucky had his memory wiped and wanted it back. Ashlynn had been living in shadows for so long that she just didn't know who she was as a person.

She scooted closer to Bucky, being as close as possible as she rested her head against his shoulder as the two of them looked onto the display together. Knowing perfectly well that they were going to be causing so much trouble once they were found out. Ashlynn was going to be marked as a traitor because she helped Bucky. Yet, she was going to take it with pride, because she knew that when you loved someone enough, you would become a criminal to do anything. And that was exactly what she was doing for Steve. She still loved him, he holds a special place within her heart. She was doing this was Bucky as well, because this broken man was just as broken as her, and probably even more. Bucky always had a spot there, because of stories, but now, in person, it's been made into a house that he could call home.

They found their home.


	15. Chapter Fifteen - Our Time Left

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I apologize for the long wait, I have been so busy these past few months but I think I might be getting back into the game once again. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and the ones to come.

With the boxes within the apartment, and kind of just dropping her suitcase at the front door, Ashlynn couldn't help but feel extremely stressed out, and overwhelmed by everything going on around her. She was just getting onto the plane in DC when Tony decided to call because Happy accidentally slipped that she was coming back to New York and things had happened in DC. Tony was questioning her left and right. Since the man was acting like a teenager who needed answers and Ashlynn was forced to tell him about her and Steve breaking up, which lead to even more questions from him. Hell, he even tried to talk her into moving into the Tower, which she denied saying that she needed her own place now. Bucky was sitting beside her, rather amused by the conversation, keeping himself hidden and really curious as to how Ashlynn even managed to pull it all off. She was smart and learned all her tricks from a spy after all. 

Bucky came back into her view, obviously just finished checking out the house, and seeing a visible smile upon his lips. “It's good to see that the place has been taken care of,” he said, glancing around as he spoke, taking everything in. “Haven't changed much about it, just modernized it, but I can get behind that.” 

Ashlynn smiled, walking over to Bucky, glancing into the kitchen and noticed all the boxes there as well, causing her to cringe. “Tony went a little overboard with everything,” She said, rubbing her temple. This was going to be a lot of work to get done and she had some studying to do before her test that was coming up and she did not want to make Bucky to all the work while she studied. 

        “We'll work our way through it, I mean, at least we have things, we only came with clothes and sleeping bags,” Bucky said, wrapping an arm around Ashlynn's shoulders while looking at the boxes in the living room, knowing that it was going to take sometime, but it was going to be all worth it later. 

        “You wanna get the kitchen dealt with? It's going to be bugging me if we do anything else,” She said, looking back into the kitchen. 

Bucky laughed before moving pass her and she followed after. The two of them began opening boxes, talking about where they should put what. She even brought her phone out and began to play music through the speaker. The two of them dance around each other, while putting things away before moving onto the dinning room/living room. Moving furniture around, Ashlynn began to set up the TV simply enough, before the two found themselves on the couch looking at the area around them, ignoring the boxes and packaging back down the hallway to the door. This was really starting to feel like a home for them. It was a start to probably many moves, but the good things was, the important thing was, they were at least going to have one place to come back to when things didn't work out too well. 

        “You know, I can't stay in America for long,” Bucky stated, knowing that it was probably a good time to even start thinking about what to do next, they really needed to be careful with what they do. 

        “I know, but for right now, let's just enjoy the moment,” Ashlynn pointed out, letting her head rest against the back of the couch, not wanting to start working her brain just yet. 

Bucky didn't say anything after that, he just joined her in with enjoying the moment. He couldn't help but think about if this was it meant to be with someone, and getting your own house for the first time, and not having to worry about anyone else, but yourself and that person with you. Even though Bucky and Ashlynn were in no relationship. Nothing stated, just a silent understanding that they just should be with each other, and they needed each other to lean on during this time of making things smoother in their lives. 

Then things just kind of fell into routine after all of that. Ashlynn would go out to college for the day, before coming home for a few hours before going off to the Avengers Tower to chat with Tony over dinner before coming to the apartment once again to make Bucky something eat. Yet, that was only for the first few weeks, after that, was when they started to slowly get things ready for Bucky to go and travel for the time being, but either were going to rush it. Ashlynn began to cut back on her classes to spend more time at the apartment, but also to spend more time with Bucky and taking him out on the town. She was finally getting the freedom she deserved after so long by Tony, that she didn't have to keep checking over her shoulder for the eyes of Happy. It was something that was taken off her chest, and she felt like she was normal again. Even with Bucky walking next to her, like a ticking time bomb, she felt normal, she felt useful, she felt like she wasn't the third best... Or even second best. 

Ashlynn was awake one night, Bucky was sleeping within his room, now that everything was unpacked, and put in it's place. She had gotten a late night text from Peter about going out to fight crime, and wondering if she wanted to join him to get some fresh air and to catch up a bit since she cut back on classes for the week. She denied, making an excused that it was because she hadn't been getting much sleep, which wasn't a complete lie, but she didn't say what was causing the lack of sleep. With the shock therapy, and with how his body had gotten engineered after his fall from the train, it was wearing off, and things were coming back, and it was most of the bad stuff. She didn't remember how many times she woken up last week before hand alone because of Bucky's screams, but luckily after the first time, and when people finally came banging on the door, she just simply explained her boyfriend was just back from doing three tours over seas and was suffering some pretty bad PTSD from being over there for so long. Nobody bothered them after that, understanding what she was talking about, since they weren't the only couple in that situation within the building. It put Ashlynn mind at ease, since when she did come across the other half that wasn't sent over these past few days, she's been asking as many questions as possible, rather then just looking them up online. Earlier that day, when Bucky was in the shower, she called up Sam to ask about it, and she got a bit questioned about it, but she simply told him that it was because of where she was living, that seemed to shut him up and he started pouring out tips.

Tonight though, it seemed like nothing was happening... Maybe this was what Sam was talking about that there was going to be times were it was possible that he was going to sleep like the dead. Ashlynn felt a bit better knowing that was the case, but for some reason, her body wouldn't let her sleep. Her mind was just on active. But that was because she was reflecting on a few things, that she honestly didn't care at the moment, yet she had to take a wild guess that it had to do something about the news and every magazine she passed when she was on her way getting juice that night. 

That very night, she was grateful that she was wearing sunglasses to hide her eyes(and she didn't care that it was dark out, her eyes had turned slightly sensitive to any kind of light due to lack of sleep), or there would have been a big up roar that she didn't wish to deal with at that very moment. Getting back to the apartment was a blessing, and having a TV was thankful since the news was covering the very same thing that the magazines were covering that very morning, along every newspaper that she passed. It has been pretty much five months since the incident back in DC and when Ashlynn called quits on Steve. Everyone close knew about it all, but it was just getting to the media now that the two of them left each others lives. It was because Tony had gotten asked the question about them, and he answered truthfully. She wasn't even angry, but then again, Steve had just started living in the Tower like maybe three weeks earlier, according to Sam's text messages that he's been sending her. Yet, still, five months was a pretty long time for the media to uncover anything. Ashlynn wanted to believe that Tony had something to do with it, but didn't really want to go and address that man about it. 

She should just be getting some sleep, but her mind just wouldn't rest, as she sat upon the couch and watching the TV screen before her showing some black and white movie. She really wasn't keeping up with the plot at all, but it was background noise and it didn't make her feel that alone. In a way it was helping but, it didn't help to ease her jump when she suddenly heard Bucky's door kind of slam open and his foot steps moving in fast on her. Ashlynn had turned around, and saw Bucky coming towards her, panic set in his eyes, causing her to get up from the couch, and pretty much throw herself over it to get to his side. His breathing was labor, a clear sign that something happened in his dreams. She really did hope that tonight was a night that he actually got rest. 

Bucky already had Ashlynn up into his arms, legging her legs wrap around his as they stood there. Bucky's face was buried into the crook of her neck, breathing her in. They found out a few months back, maybe around a bit after the first month that they moved in here that whenever Bucky was waking up panicked from a dream, that whatever smell Ashlynn always had on her skin, calmed the man, and brought him back together. Not that she was complaining, it made her feel good that she could be of some help, though Bucky kept telling her that she was doing more then enough, and wished that she wouldn't keep putting herself in danger because of him. Of course, that lead to Ashlynn going on about how she wanted to, and that she wouldn't listen to him. Yet right now, it was one of those times where silence held their secrets and Bucky held her, carrying her back into his bed, where they both laid. Limps tangled together, and Ashlynn talking softly about things of her past. 

Bucky would play with her hair, bury his face into her neck, maybe even rest his forehead against hers. He was listening to her closely, while finding ways to be comfortable, yet also holding something deeply back. For the man, he was finding himself, slowly, but steadily, loving this girl that happened to know all about him due to information, due to his best friend, due to the fact that he kept her around because she made him feel like he was human. Bucky could never tell her though. He would also have that need to before she went off to college, but he would chicken out, saying he would be here. There had been times she wouldn't be home on time like she normally would, and he was ready to go out and search for her before realizing that, right, she got him a phone, and there he would be, sitting upon the couch, reading those messages, knowing where she was and when she was going to be back. When she did get home, Bucky would kind of just follow her around, would it be physical or with his eyes. 

He didn't even know her for a whole year yet, but the two of them just kind of nested in each others hearts. And he knew that he held a pretty large part in hers by how she was always careful with him. Also fought back when he got angry because something trigger his memory or something that brought out the emotion. Ashlynn had a basic idea of her affect on Bucky, but if she only knew how high up there Bucky held her. She was something sent from heaven. He was sure of it, but at the same time, he knew it was because she had a good influence in her life and was raised properly... at least for the most part. It kind of upset him when he found out that she was in a way, own by the government, that she was second best to the world. Bucky couldn't understand that. Sure, she was meant to be Captain America if the world needed her. But with Steve around, nobody saw her, for her still. Ashlynn was special in her own way. She wasn't raised with military expectations. Ashlynn was in care of many strong woman, and a man that loved her very much like his own daughter- if he had one. Bucky was glad to get to know her. 

In the early hours of that morning, Bucky was still awake, watching Ashlynn's peaceful face, as the girl had fallen asleep some time ago due to the fact that she literally poured out a lot of things out to him about today, about a few other things. He just listened. He listened until she couldn't even talk anymore. He stayed there, not wished to awake her. He was grateful for keeping her safe. Bucky couldn't have asked anyone better to help him on his way to knowing himself again, as well as understanding the world around him once again. Sure, when things weren't working in HYDRA's favor, he would be awoken, but each time, in a different point in time, he had to relearn how to use curtain things. And now wasn't anything different. Yet, thanks to Ashlynn, who once again, helped Bucky get a quick understanding of it all. Honestly, he didn't know what he did to get someone like her?

Yet, a nagging feeling within the back of his head was bugging him for the past five months since he's been with her. Had he stolen her from Steve? Ashlynn kept saying that it was because it was expected by many people, that it was more forced then anything. And not many things triggered those personal talks with Ashlynn either, though if they were watching a good TV show and they got to a spot where they were anywhere close to the same situation she was in, she would kind of just go off, ranting kind of about it. Not that Bucky didn't mind it, but he learned quickly that he needed to be careful with what he was watching with her around, he didn't like it when she was stressed out. 

Watching her sleep though... That was true peace to him. Ashlynn looked like she was finally able to let go of whatever stress she was holding onto, any thing to drag her down and hold herself back. He knew that something rested within her. Bucky never said anything to her about it because then she would start blaming herself upon it, when Bucky knew it was because of him and the nightmares. She would stay with him, not caring what this could even lead to. So far, it was always innocent. But deep down, where he kept it hidden, Bucky promised himself that he wasn't going to do anything against her will. The girl was still so innocent, so pure. She's only kissed one guy in her entire life and they've done nothing beyond that. Bucky weakly remembers that Steve was a gentleman, and a classy one like that, and would go on about how he wanted to take his time with anyone he was dating due to the fact that why rush something and lose your virginity, only to turn out to be the worst time of your life. Bucky couldn't understand that, sure, there were going to be bad times and good times, but holding one's self back when your partner is clearly wanting it as well was just rude and painful to watch... As well as a one quick ticket to losing that person because they got bored and frustrated with that waiting. 

Just, Bucky knew that he didn't have much time left for him to enjoy this. He had to get out of the city sooner, rather then later, when things could really start going down hill for the both of them. He was going to miss this the most, having someone there when he needed it the most, when he needed someone to be there for him. He knew that Ashlynn was only a call away, but he was going to hate it when he was waking her up, yet Ashlynn told him that she wasn't going to care. Knowing that he was okay, sleep be damned. Brushing some of her hair that had fallen into her face. That peaceful look upon her face as what he was going to miss the most though.

Once again, things found away to becoming normal, especially after the place finished getting unpacked. Together, they were slowly getting Bucky ready for the trip to Europe, as much as Ashlynn didn't want him to go, he had to for both of their safety. Ashlynn was honestly trying hard not to seem hurt by all of this, but it kept showing. She didn't even understand why she was acting like this. They weren't together. It had been close to a year now that her and Steve's relationship had finished, and she wasn't in any kind of rush to jump into another relationship, but she just wanted Bucky there. Ashlynn enjoyed him being there when she came home. To have him cuddling on the couch with watching whatever it was to catch him up on time as best as she could. Teaching him everything that he needed to know. She was scared of the silence that was going to be resting in the apartment once he was gone. 

        “You're getting worked up again,” Bucky commented from the computer that he was working on at the table, breaking into Ashlynn's thoughts as she was leaning against the counter in the kitchen. 

Ashlynn glanced over to Bucky, smiling softly with a playful glare on the side. “I'm trying not to, but I find this a little stupid that you have to go, nobody barely comes here since I want my space and I can leave the house if I want to see them,” she pointed out, rubbing the back of her neck. They have had this same conversation about a thousand or more times these last few months. “And today was a rough day,” 

Bucky stopped what he was doing, looking over to Ashlynn, a worry look upon his face, he knew what this probably meant. “Did you finally bump into him today?” he asked, fixing himself in his chair to get a better look at the girl that seemed to be tense, really tense. 

        “Yeah..” she replied, looking down at her feet, trying to get the feeling that was forming in her gut away again. She felt like she was going to throw up, but she also just wanted the ground to swallow her up and make it like she didn't even exist. 

It had been ten and a half months since Ashlynn had last saw Steve, and she finally did that morning, getting asked by Bruce if she could come in real quick and check on some formula that Tony and him were working on, and needed a third opinion from another bright mind. Seeing no problem with that, she headed right over, reassuring Bucky that she would be back for breakfast. She arrived there, heading straight for the lab, meeting Sam on the way, which was a little tense, because Ashlynn knew that Steve was there, and most likely wondering around. With her luck, he was leaving the lab when she was arriving to it. Not even a 'hello', she quickly moved passed Steve, leaving him standing there. After that, it was hard to even focus in the lab until she finally had an out thanks to Peter asking for a little help downtown. She might had been there for a total of thirty minutes, but that was like hell for her. She got a little bit of the tension out with helping Peter deal with crime before heading back to her apartment, which was why she was currently in the kitchen making breakfast, while getting worked up again with everything. 

        “Did you say anything to him?” Bucky asked, curious of how she took this. When she answered with only silence, he got up and pulled her into a hug. “Was it that hard to say anything?” 

        “I could barely look at him, Bucky,” Ashlynn said, resting her head against his chest, listening to his heart beat. “He looked so shocked to see me, and I knew he wanted to say something, but I just couldn't... Tony got worried that I wasn't ready to be at the Tower or working with the Avengers again... I told him I want to, maybe it would help me get over whatever is between Steve and I.” 

Bucky rubbed at her back, feeling the tension release from her as she thought this through. “Whatever you think will work, I'm backing you up,” he said, kissing the top of her head. 

That caused both of them to freeze. Ashlynn glanced up at Bucky, as the man kind of just let her go and backed away to the computer, just sinking into work without a single word, or look towards her. They were one for touches, but that kiss, that was something that had never happened before. Ashlynn opened to her mouth to say something, to calm his fears, but she closed her mouth once again, not wanting to cause Bucky to get upset or anything. Their breakfast was just in a blanket of silence. Neither of them knew how to proceed with anything. Like it was awkward, but it wasn't too awkward, it was just unexpected and they didn't really talk about how to go about things like that. 

Their day continued on in silence after that. Sometime after Lunch, Ashlynn had gotten a text from Peter about coming over, because he needed some serious time to talk about things since Aunt May was going to be out of the house for a couple of hours, and Ashlynn needed to get things off her chest too. Leaving a note on the table next to a sleeping solider, she quietly left the apartment, locking it behind her and headed off to Queens. She knew that she was going to confess that she was living with another guy, and Peter was going to be asking about a million questions about it. Ashlynn wasn't sure how she was going to tell him about Bucky, but it was going to be work, and she was going to get through it.

Arriving at the Parker flat, she walked right in, knowing that this was like a second home to her and it was usually how it worked, especially after Aunt May lectured Ashlynn about this being her home as well, shoving a key into her hand. Music was playing throughout the place, and Peter was in the kitchen making up snack items. Ashlynn took off her shoes, going into Peter's room and grabbing one of his hoodies and slipping it on before returning back to the kitchen. Not even a second after she stepped in, Peter smiled widely at her, grabbing her hand and pulling her to him to dance. The two of them danced together, no care in the world. The two of them were best friends for years, and this was so normal between them. She couldn't have asked for a better friend from anyone else. The song came to the end, and Peter finally turned the music down, the both of them laughing, clearly needed it with whatever stress that was ailing them. 

        “It is rather good to see my dear friend in high spirits again after worrying about her this morning,” Peter said, handing her a can of Dr. Pepper from the fridge, getting one for himself as well. “You looked pretty glad when you mentioned of an escape thanks to me, did something happen at the tower? Obviously something happened, you never get desperate for an escape like that.” He crack his drink open, taking a sip from it before continuing on. “And I bet my life that it was something to do with Steve.” 

Ashlynn cracked her can open as well, taking a rather large gulp from it before resting it upon the counter. “Yeah, it was Steve... I saw him before going into the lab to help Bruce and Tony... I choked up, Peter,” she said, sighing, rubbing the back of her neck. “Not like I wanted to cry choked up, like, I was silent and shoved past him. I didn't know what to say to him.” 

Peter checked the oven, making sure that he wasn't burning the nachos. “Well, I can't blame you,” He said, getting back to standing, putting the timer on. “You haven't seen each other in months, and you left with words and a kiss. I'm pretty sure you left an impression on him.” 

        “Probably, but I do feel bad for being so cold, but then again, I was full of so much guilt, Peter,” she said, looking at him, knowing that it would be now or never to tell Peter about any of this. “I mean, I pretty much moved out, and left him, only to move here with his best friend.” 

As soon as those words came out, Peter's eyes widened to a size that Ashlynn didn't think was possible, but apparently it was. “I thought they couldn't find him...” he said, his voice lowering to a whisper, obviously wanting to be careful right now. “Ash... Are you...?” Ashlynn nodded her head, guilt written all over her face. Peter bit on his lip, not wanting to freak out, so he took a deep breath before proceeding. “You are hiding a criminal... Do you know how much-”

        “Peter, Bucky isn't a criminal, he's a fucking victim, they tortured him, made him into something that fucking scares him.” Ashlynn said, her voice going thin, rather offended that Peter would use such a word. “You didn't see what they did to him to wipe his memories... It was horrible.” 

Peter relaxed, realizing that she as correct, he wasn't there when that all happened, Ashlynn was, she was right in the middle of it. She had gotten kidnapped by HYDRA, and she saw this man get turned into something that he didn't want to be. “I know, you told me before, but I know I can't get upset with you for hiding him either,” he said, leaning against the counter, looking at her. “How is he?”

Ashlynn relaxed more as well, happy that someone understood. She wished that it would be easy like that with everyone. But it would never be like that. “He's doing okay, first few months had been rough, but he's gotten so much better... I am kind of sad to see him go,” she said, beginning to play with the tab of her pop can. “I know he wants to keep me safe, but I don't want him to go, and have so much I want to say to him,” 

        “Something happen after you went home this morning,” Peter said, catching on quickly to Ashlynn's tone and the fact that she was going to go off onto a ramble in seconds if he hadn't stopped her just now. 

        “How do you always know?” Ashlynn asked, staring up at her best friend. She shouldn't be shocked but she was was. 

        “You get a tone, and you start to ramble,” he stated, causing him to pause to watch Ashlynn get ready to protest before closing her mouth, and biting upon her lip, making Peter smile. “Anyways, what happened between you and Bucky this morning?” 

        “...He kissed me on the forehead,” she said, her voice getting small, and she moved her pop can away from herself. Those words caused Peter Parker to start choking the the sugary drink and stare at her in shocked, the very reaction that she was expecting from him. 

        “And it what context was the kiss even meant to be?” he asked, leaning forward more across the counter, and getting really close in her face, wanting answers. Aunt May does the exact same thing. 

        “I was stressed out and he did it, I wanted to say something badly, but we fell into silence and now I am concerned that he might just run off...” she looked at her hands before dropping her face into them, letting out a frustrated groan. So much has been happening today, and she wasn't sure how to keep herself together anymore due to emotions. 

        “What did it make you feel?” Peter asked, his voice gentle, knowing that he was going to need to take this carefully. 

        “Happy. Safe.” she said, her hands muffling the words, but Peter could still make them out. “Peter, I think I might be falling for him, or it could just be me starting to miss him because I know he's going to be gone soon,” 

Peter moved around the counter, going to her side and wrapping an arm around her and pulling her to his side. He softly rubbed at her arm, trying to wrap his own head around this. Out of the two of them, Ashlynn was the only one to have a serious relationship. “I think you should wait, but let him know that he didn't do anything wrong, it'll put him at ease at least.” Peter said, giving the best advice that he could think of in such a short time. 

        “What would I do without you?” Ashlynn asked, looking up from her hands and smiling at her best friend, earning a wide smile. 

        “Probably crash and burn, or have you run off with your ex's best friend,” Peter pointed out, causing her to laugh, and shake her head at him. “Hey, the latter was a high possibility, but I know that you wouldn't have left me, and Tony would hunt you down and ground you for the rest of your life.” 

        “I am more scared of Pepper than Tony,” Ashlynn pointed, and kind of shivering at the last time that Pepper had ever gotten mad at anyone or was really stressed out. “And I thought Aunt May was scary.” 

Peter laughed, shaking his head as well. “Yeah, don't remind me, Aunt May still makes me want to piss my pants.” 

The two of them hung out for just a little bit longer that afternoon, Ashlynn left when Aunt May arrived home, turning down the offer of dinner since she had to go home and make something for Bucky anyways. Things were better having a nice chat with Peter. Her only real friend that she's had since she was young. And getting out of the house was nice as well, after bumping into Steve that morning. This whole freedom thing has helped her so much. And doing something against the law for once in her entire life was a rush, but it was something that she believed had to be good. 

She got back to the apartment in record timing because Bucky had just finished up dinner. “Hey, sorry I was out for so long, I was chatting with Peter,” she said handing her coat on the back of the chair in the dining room. “Did you sleep okay?”

        “It's perfectly fine, he's your best friend, I am not forbidding you from seeing him,” Bucky said, chuckling a bit as he began to dish the plates. “And it was a good nap, was really needed.” 

Ashlynn grabbed the ice tea from the fridge and the chocolate milk. Both in large four liter jugs that the two of them were slowly getting through but they were almost half way finished with them. Looking to Bucky when she placed the jugs on the table, she took a deep breath. “With that kiss this morning, don't worry about it, it wasn't weird or anything, it was actually really nice...” she said, fiddling with her shirt sleeve a little bit. 

And the silence came back once again. Both of them didn't move from their positions, and Ashlynn couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She was going to take It as good since that meant nobody was going to be making a run for it. Bucky, had put the plates back on the counter, obviously not wishing to risk the lost of food. “I don't want you just saying that to make me feel better,” Bucky said, looking over his shoulder to Ashlynn, causing her to look up at him. “For months, you've been careful with whatever you talk about, but you don't talk about what you feel, truly.” 

Ashlynn moved herself from the table, but when she was in that space between where Bucky stood and where she was previously standing, she stood there, not sure what to do now, she never really thought this far ahead. “I am telling you the truth though, that kiss... It felt really nice, I didn't want you to think that I didn't like it,” she said, taking another step forward, reaching out to rest her hand upon his arm. “And honestly, with me talking, I'm not sure how to go about any of this since I don't want to cause you to do something that you'll hate yourself for.” 

Bucky looked down at her arm, bringing his free hand up and resting it against hers, and the tension started to leave his body, causing him to just kind of slump into the counter, over the food. “Why are you so good with your words?” he asked, laughing softly. 

        “Because, Steve might have influenced it a bit,” she said, going to his side at last and resting her head against his shoulder, and closing her eyes. “How long?”

        “A week,” Bucky said, knowing exactly what was going through her head. It was something they both didn't wish to talk about but it was needed to be. “I want to make our time something worth remembering.” 

        “And we will...” Ashlynn said, turning her head and kissing Bucky's arm, not ashamed to show emotions now. Everything about this felt right, but she wasn't going to be pushing for anything. For both of them. “We can go out of town or something, we'll figure it out when the time comes.”

The two of them stood there, in front of the small kitchen window, that showed a view of the small park that was behind the house and the road that was lined with shops of all kind, many of them keeping to the old style of signs, something to give the block character. The last light of sun falling in from the building across the way, shining down upon them. 

If only this peace would last for them...


End file.
